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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24248083">love will lead us all to smithereens</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heather/pseuds/Heather'>Heather</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Afterlife, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Road Trips, Sibling Bonding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:02:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>37,450</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24248083</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heather/pseuds/Heather</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nebula squinted at him, then shrugged. "If I had command of the stones and could have anything I wanted, then yes. Yes, I would ask for my sister back."</p><p>Thor nodded. "What would you give up? If sacrifice could do the job?"</p><p>Nebula thought for a moment, watching the stars above. She was quiet for so long, Thor thought that she might have decided not to answer him.</p><p>"I think I would start with the stones," she said. "If I could take them and trade them to a being that powerful, then they could do anything."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I started thinking about this the day after I saw Dust Babby. I started writing it the day that 11's request was put up in 2018. So if you still meme, bb, this one's for you. For everyone else, this didn't start as a 2D2B fixit fic, but you can probably read it as one. </p><p>&amp;Napricot for the beta.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor had thought, once they killed Thanos and destroyed his gauntlet, it would reverse everything. </p><p>It was the sort of thing that happened when a hero vanquished a monster in a fairytale. A thought which had made him feel childish upon recognizing it. Even if that had been true, Thor didn't do the vanquishing himself; he wasn't entitled to the honors and magical rewards and dreams come true.</p><p>And he had been so focused on that one singular ray of hope that he had forgotten: Thanos hadn't even <i>had</i> the full gauntlet yet when he killed Loki.</p><p>Its destruction did do most of what Thor had hoped. Rocket's crew was restored to life. The one-armed friend of Rogers rose, confused and blinking, with his metal limb appearing intact and still attached, as though it really were a part of his body. Stark's child-friend rose as well, and the new girl- the magic one, Thor hadn't had the opportunity to fight at her side yet and didn't know her name. <i>The scarlet witch,</i> he settled on, was the first to rise looking unhappy. He felt a momentary sense of kinship- until Rogers handed her the Mind Stone and she leapt upon him in a grateful, joyous embrace. Vision, then, Thor supposed- she had been sad about Vision. He hadn't even realized they were close. He pushed at himself to feel a little spark of hope for them that Stark would be able to fix him. It was harder than it should have been.</p><p>The last one to rise within sight of Thor was young Groot, and Thor's rabbit friend fled so fast in that direction that he tripped over his own tail twice. He would have found the sight funny as recently as yesterday. It wasn't funny now.</p><p>The others of their crew- Quill, Drax, Mantis- all rushed in to hold onto Rocket and Groot as well, forming a confusing tangle of limbs in which everyone probably got struck by tree branches a lot, but no one seemed to mind. Why would they? What was being struck with a tree branch compared to having your family back?</p><p>Thor tried to find somewhere to look that wasn't directly at someone else's happy reunion, but it seemed impossible. He was on a field of tight hugs and teary-eyed smiles, surrounded by people whose lives had been restored to them- literally and metaphorically- after they thought they had lost everything.</p><p>Thor had nothing today that he didn't have yesterday. He realized with an ache that knocked the breath out of him that he never would.</p><p>No one was going to rise up out of all of that dust for him.</p><p>---</p><p> One of the hardest parts of deep grief, Thor learned right away, was how difficult it made it for him to interact with others. His emotions chiefly consisting of a void where everyone he loved used to be, he could no longer rely upon his own humor, happiness, or contentment to induce him to laugh or smile. He had to do them on purpose, when he happened to catch that that was what he was expected to be doing, and hope that no one noticed.<br/>
Everyone noticed. </p><p>"Thor, are you okay?" Natasha asked. She had been complaining about General Ross' latest attempts to be unpleasant for them and made a joke he hadn't quite understood about bureaucracies staying dust long enough for them to fix what needed fixing. He was sure he wouldn't have laughed sincerely in any case. But he suspected that he might have faked the laugh sooner if he hadn't been staring, morose, into the distance and not paying attention.</p><p>"Of course," he said. He tried taking a leaf from Rogers' book. "I just didn't really understand that reference."</p><p>"That wasn't a reference," Natasha said.</p><p>"Oh." Thor tried smiling at her anyway. There were benefits to being good-looking, and having a disarming smile was usually one of them.</p><p>Natasha looked, if anything, even more concerned. "If you need to talk...."</p><p>"Thank you, Natasha, but I'm fine," he said.</p><p>The next day, Rogers took him out to the fields around Wakanda's border shield, to clear debris and the corpses of Outriders that were still strewn against the shielding. It was hot, smelly, thirsty work, but Thor found himself liking it. It was hard to think about anything else when his senses were overwhelmed by the fetid stench of cloned parasites that had battered themselves to death against invisible walls. If his eyes happened to water, he had an explanation, and it was such a disgusting situation to be in, it didn't invite much conversation. Thor wanted to commend him on the choice of distraction, at least until Steve started talking.</p><p>"You know, Bucky and me," he said, "We've been friends since I can remember. Since we were little kids."</p><p>"Interesting," Thor said, unsure as to where he was going with this, but suspicious that he wasn't much going to like it. "Your metal-limbed friend?"</p><p>"Well, he wasn't metal-limbed then," Rogers said, "but yeah."</p><p>"That's- good for you, Steve, congratulations," he said. He clapped him on the back, hoping that would be the end of it. Thor was struggling with jealousy as it was that Rogers' friend had come back when Thor's family was still dead. He wasn't sure he could bear to think too hard about the fact that he and Rogers had both lost their entire worlds, but one of them had found a piece of his to cling to and the other had not.</p><p>Steve nodded, but barreled on. "There was a while, when he was gone, where he fell in with some people that- messed him up, made him do things. He hurt and killed a lot of people for a good long time."</p><p>Thor thought he could sense the shape of where this was starting to go and wanted more than anything to head it off before it got there. "Poor Bucky," he said, aware that he sounded unconvincing but not caring as much as he probably ought. "Perhaps we could shovel a few more of these reeking corpses onto the disposal vehicle?"</p><p>Steve looked like he wanted even less than Thor to keep going, but like he was committed now that he had begun and would have to see it through to its terrible ending. "There was a while there, not too long ago, where I was willing to do anything to get him back, no matter what he'd done. No matter who it hurt. Everyone else saw him as the things he'd done: the espionage, the tortures, the murders. They saw him as the Winter Soldier. I just saw him as Bucky. My friend that I missed more than anything."</p><p>Thor waited. </p><p>"If you need to talk," Steve said, "to somebody who gets what it's like to miss someone nobody else misses, I'm right here."</p><p>It took a minute, but he managed to force a blandly contended expression. "Thank you," Thor said, "but I'm- I'm good to go."</p><p>Steve looked sad, but let him go back to corpse-scooping in silence.</p><p>He or Natasha or both must have said something to Stark, because Thor's rooms later contained a gift basket of several alcohols and a gold-emblazoned card with the name of a person he didn't know, subtitled "Professional Escort." Thor considered keeping them, but decided that would be inconsistent with the idea that he didn't need cheering up, so he gave them to Stark's portly friend instead.</p><p>The problem was, the person Thor most wanted to talk to about Loki being dead was Loki.<br/>
He didn't imagine it as Loki turning up alive, contrite, and ready to listen to how Thor felt imagining him lost forever this time. No, he was long past assuming that Loki had somehow staged this whole thing as part of an elaborate plan to save himself from Thanos's wrath. Loki had had the chance to continue hiding beneath the wreckage after Thanos had won his fight with the Hulk, and he had passed it up to try to kill Thanos himself. </p><p><i>Why?</i> Thor wanted to ask him. <i>When they had forgotten you were there?</i></p><p>
  <i>I suppose I thought it was what you would do,<i> he imagined Loki answering, with that mocking look he got every time they skirted a little too close to talking about anything real. Perhaps with a touch of that lifelong resentment that Loki felt it was expected of him to do what Thor would do.</i></i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>That was idiotic,</i> Thor wanted to say. <i>The way a child imagines real combat to be.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>Well, then, it very much sounds like what you would do,</i> came the imaginary reply.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>At any other time in their lives, in any of the real conversations they had ever had, Thor would have taken that opportunity to tell Loki in no uncertain terms how terrible he was. As Loki had, as brothers did. Thor was a bit more reluctant to dole that out these days. Even in a fiction of his own mind.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>I think the strangest thing about you being dead is what a final blow to my life it seems to be,</i> Thor thought. <i>After losing Mother, Father, Asgard itself, I always felt that there was still something I could use to begin anew. After you, there doesn't seem to be anything left. Nothing I care to build on. I'm not even upset about it. I think I haven't the energy.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He wanted to imagine Loki being sympathetic or gentle at this, but his mind didn't seem to want to let him have it. He imagined his brother awkward and uncomfortable, as he had been the last time Thor told him the truth of how he had mourned. <i>I remain honored as ever.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Pain pushed in on his chest, like the weight of a stone crushing down upon his heart.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"You remain dead," Thor said aloud. </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The emptiness of his room couldn't have been harsher if it had been the wreckage of the ship Thor had last seen Loki in. He didn't have the option of weeping and waiting for it to take him now. Though, in hindsight, he hadn't really had the option then; his body persisted in living, as it would for at least another four thousand years or more.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor wondered if to be Asgardian these days was to be cursed.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Loki would have known what to do about that.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor's reverie was broken by an awkward knock that sounded as though it was coming through the wall. He reached out to touch it, wondering for a moment if--</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Hey, man," said what sounded like the voice of Sam the Falcon, shot through with awkwardness, "these walls are really thin."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor's heart sank. "I apologize," he said. "I shall endeavor to be very, very quiet."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>There was a beat.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I know it's none of my business," Sam said, "but you should really talk to somebody."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Sorry," said Thor. "Can't hear you. I'm fine." He buried himself under the covers and wondered, with a petty sort of bitterness, why if Fate had to take his family, it couldn't have left him his room.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>---</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Part of the problem was that for the first time in his life, there was nowhere Thor needed to be and nothing he needed to do, and with no one counting on him to push past his newfound hollowness to help them, he had no idea how to dig himself back out. He was spending a lot of time wandering aimless and waiting for someone to ask him to do something. This often turned into errands of the most random and pointless sort, including being a childminder for a few hours for Princess Shuri and Peter (the spider-child, not the Star Lord; apparently humans just used the same names for unrelated people willy-nilly). Why anyone thought they needed it, Thor didn't know; they were doing fairly simple experiments with putting small holes in the fabric of reality to try to recreate Strange's portals without magic. How much trouble could they get into, really?</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Duck! Duck! Get down, you idiot!" Shuri shouted, tackling Peter to the floor half a second before their portal collapsed again, dispersing lightning around the room.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor let out a sigh and reached Stormbreaker into the arc. The entire bolt sizzled down the blade, through the handle, and into his arm. He felt it zip through his arm, down his side, then his leg, before exiting his foot into the floor. It didn't feel great, but he found it preferable to another lab fire. The last one had sent Shuri into a towering temper that had cast a pall over their lunch.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter's lunch, anyway. Thor knew he had eaten something, but he couldn't remember what it was. Shuri's bad mood hadn't affected his appetite one way or the other.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"You may come out now," he said. "It's passed."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri emerged first, glaring down at Peter. "You may be a very good chemist," she said, "but you have much to learn about being a mechanical engineer."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter popped up, looking annoyed. "I've never done anything with vibranium before," he said. "How am I supposed to know how it reacts to quantum energy?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri shook her head, pitying. "If you look again at the formulae--"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor sighed again. Louder than he had intended, since Peter and Shuri dropped their bickering in an instant.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Maybe we should go outside," Peter said. "You know, fresh air, sunlight, long walk- thinking stuff."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri looked amused. "'Thinking stuff.'"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>If he noticed how dubious she seemed of the notion, Peter gave no indication of it. "Yeah," he said. "Thinking stuff." He looked to Thor. "Wanna come?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I don't have much of a choice. You're in my charge for the day," Thor reminded him.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Oh yeah," Peter said.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor took pity. "But of course I wouldn't mind."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>They both smiled at him with such intensity that Thor had the feeling he ought to regret it.<br/>
Outside didn't seem to be a bad decision. Most of the damage surrounding the palace had been repaired already, so the view was pleasant enough, and the weather was comfortably warm. Peter and Shuri sprinted to get ahead of him so he couldn't hear them arguing anymore- which was something of a mixed blessing. The arguing wasn't too annoying on its own, but it was familiar, and that meant having to cope with both <i>I remember arguing like that</i> and <i>Loki and I will never again argue like that</i>.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Stop it, he thought. It is a beautiful day out and you are going to let it be a beautiful day out. No more moping. None.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The voice of Loki that he had spent far too much time of late having imaginary conversations with seemed to perk up at this. <i>Who do you think you're fooling?</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor scowled at nothing. <i>Why must I imagine you as you truly were,</i> he wondered rhetorically to himself, <i>instead of as the nicer version I could imagine you to be?</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>Oh, if only that weren't impossible to guess,</i> he imagined Loki saying. <i>Truly, it is beyond even the greatest intellect.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Oh, shut up," Thor muttered aloud, grateful that Peter and Shuri weren't close enough to hear.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Then again, looking at them, perhaps that might not be such a good thing. The pair kept whispering to each other, looking back at him, and gesticulating a great deal. Thor wondered if they were applying themselves to the problem of how to get rid of him so they could get up to something more interesting than teleportation experiments. That was familiar, too. He and Loki had spent half a childhood trying to evade the eyes of their mother (and, later, Heimdall), and had not managed it nearly as often as they had wanted to. Children were the same all over.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He should probably be concerned about that.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri was the first to slow down to such a crawl that Thor caught up almost by accident. "So what do you think of Wakanda?" she asked. "Since you are staying here."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor wasn't sure if she was asking him or Peter and took long enough to answer that he felt wrong-footed even trying. "It seems a fine place," he said.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter, it seemed, did not find that answer good enough. "This place is amazing!" he said. "Did you know they have battle rhinos?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I did not," Thor said. He also didn't know what a rhino was. "How impressive."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri looked offended, whether by Peter's misplaced enthusiasm or Thor's palpable lack of it, Thor wasn't sure. "We have much better things around here to see than rhinos."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"The lab is pretty cool," Peter said, which seemed to mollify her.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>For a moment, anyway, until Shuri cleared her throat, elbowing him. Peter gave her a helpless look. She gave him a pointed one back.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor tilted his head at them.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Suddenly Peter pointed at the ground, blurting, "Hey, look at that cool bug!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor looked. "I see no bug." He was starting to look back up when he noticed that Peter was making some sort of hand signal. His thumb and forefinger were pinched together forming a circle about level with his hip. Thor frowned at it and looked back at him. "I'm sorry, my young friend. I don't follow your gesture."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri groaned.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter looked like he wished he were elsewhere. "It's a game," he said, a little lamely. "You get the other person to look and if you're going like this down here, you get to hit them."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor tilted his head again. "You want to hit me?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"No!" Peter said. "It just- it- it's supposed to be fun." He sounded more and more embarrassed by the word.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I see," Thor said. He didn't, but he was opposed to ruining children's games on principle. He gestured at his shoulder. "Go ahead."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter cringed. "It's okay," he said. "Really."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"No, please," Thor said. "Go ahead."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter looked at Shuri. She shrugged in a way that seemed to indicate that she had no idea what he could do but accept his victory. For a moment, Peter hung his head. Then he stretched his fist to the side to lightly tap Thor on the shoulder.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor waited to see if there was any more to this game. There didn't seem to be. He looked at Peter. "Do you feel better now?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter could not have looked more crestfallen if he had lost. "Yeah," he said. "Thanks."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>They went back to walking, lapsing into an awkward silence.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Do something," Thor heard Shuri hiss under her breath.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"<i>You</i> do something," Peter hissed back. "I already tried!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"You failed," she said, "so it is still your turn!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"What? That doesn't make any sense!" Peter glared. "If you think you can do a better job than me--"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri pinched his arm. Peter pinched her back.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor wondered if this was the sort of thing he had been assigned to them to stop. It hadn't escalated to knife play yet, but humans were fairly fragile compared to Asgardians. <i>I'll let them carry on until one of them draws first blood,</i> he decided, <i>then I'll make them stop.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri pinched him again, hard enough to extract a sharp wince from between Peter's clenched teeth, and whispered (quite loudly, for a whisper), "<i>Try!</i>"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter groaned, then cleared his throat. "Uh, um- hey!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor raised his eyebrows.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"You know what?" Peter said, bouncing on the balls of his feet like he was trying to work himself into a frenzy of confidence. It didn't seem to be working.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"What?" he said, curious in spite of himself as to where this was going.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter's jaws worked for a moment, opening and closing, as though if they kept moving, the words would come out on their own. It seemed to go on for a veritable eternity before Peter's shoulders sank and he tried, pitifully, "Chicken butt?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"...are you well?" Thor asked.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri's expression was disbelieving to the point of livid. "Chicken butt?" she repeated. "<i>Chicken butt?!</i>"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I panicked!" Peter said, glaring.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri glared back. "The Spider-Man is supposed to be famous for his wit!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Do you know how much easier that is when it's bad guys?" Peter asked. "You don't get caught up thinking about their feelings! It's a whole different ball game!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri looked, if anything, even more disbelieving. "The internet has lied to me," she said.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Hey," Peter said, wounded- whether on behalf of himself or the internet, Thor wasn't sure. He also wasn't sure if they remembered that he was here or realized that he wasn't so elderly and decrepit that he couldn't hear them.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Still, Peter seemed to be trying- however badly- to impress the princess, so Thor decided to try to help. He forced a laugh and patted Peter on the back. "Very funny, my young friend," he said. He put his thumbs up.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter buried his face in his palms, looking more and more like he wished he were dead. Shuri looked no more impressed now than she had a minute ago.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor bent to whisper to Peter, no more quietly than he had been whispering to Shuri, "I don't think the joke is working."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Yeah, I noticed that," Peter said, miserable.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Perhaps you could take her somewhere," Thor said. "You have other fine qualities that may appear in a better light elsewhere."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter turned red. "That's not really what the joke was for," he said.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor nodded. "Of course not."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter gave Shuri a hopeful look, as though that somehow might have accomplished his goal. The look Shuri gave him back wasn't particularly heartening in that regard.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Still, she seemed to be willing to give Peter another chance. She even seemed excited by the prospect, judging by the way her eyes seemed to have lit from within as though she had just had a wonderful realization. She turned to Thor with a smile that seemed shy and innocent in a (painfully familiar) calculated way. "There is a very beautiful lake," she said, "not far from here. Would you like to see it with me and Spider-Witless?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter scowled, but chose not to comment.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor thought about reminding them a second time that as long as he was their minder, he would have to go wherever they wanted, but decided against it. "Of course," he said. He gestured Shuri ahead. "Lead the way, Your Highness."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri seemed delighted that Thor used her proper form of address- at least, Thor thought so; he wasn't sure what else she had to look so pleased about. She turned eastward on her heel and started marching in that direction with joyous purpose.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor followed, trying to remember the first person he had made a fool of himself trying to impress. He got as far as thinking it was probably Sif before his chest hurt enough that he didn't want to keep thinking about it.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Would it hurt less if Loki were here to joke about it? Thor tried to imagine him- following along, looking very bored, probably contemplating some mischief or other he could pull on Thor's charges. <i>Do you remember showing off for Sif at that age?</i> he imagined asking him.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>No version of Loki would ever be sympathetic to Thor's plight, it seemed. <i>I remember that I slept with her and you didn't.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor was distracted from glowering at nothing by Peter and Shuri running full tilt for the water, Peter backflipping into it while Shuri slogged in waist-deep, both heedless of their clothes. Thor looked for a place to sit down where he could still watch them without being in danger of getting splashed. Thor's armor from the battles with Thanos was now the only outfit he owned, and it was the worst for chafing if even the slightest amount of moisture was present.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter and Shuri didn't seem too interested in splashing him, however. They played in the water for only a moment or two before moving to the other side of it, going back to whispering and gesturing at him, as though they thought he couldn't see them. Thor hoped it wasn't because Peter was planning to try joking again. He really ought to be focusing his efforts on his flips if he wanted to impress the princess. Thor squinted in the sun to watch them more carefully.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Shuri seemed to be doing most of the talking. That was probably alright- she seemed the more practical of the two. At the very least, she probably wouldn't need Thor to pretend to laugh at a feeble and out of context exclamation about poultry ass.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the birds, the wind, and the lapping of the water. He tried to appreciate the fact that there were sounds in the world again. Before Thanos' defeat, Thor would've sworn there weren't any. He remembered it as deathly silent, so devoid of life that if there <i>did</i> happen to be a sound, it struck his ear as so loud as to be explosive. He remembered how fitting it had felt at the time, that the world was as dead as he tried not to wish he was.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>It's better this way,</i> he told himself. <i>Better like this.</i> He wasn't sure whom he was trying to convince.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>This was the trouble with being by himself for even a minute, he was starting to realize. All paths led straight back to his grieving.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He opened his eyes and cast about for Peter and Shuri. They had taken all of one single minute to slip off and disappear. Thor wasn't worried, exactly, but he knew that Stark and T'Challa would be furious if they knew he had misplaced the pair when he was supposed to be watching them. He frowned. They couldn't have made it back to the lab already, that would have taken longer than just one minute.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He was just starting to get up to go after them when he heard movement in the trees above him. He looked up just in time for Peter to yell, "Think fast!" while Princess Shuri threw a rather large snake at Thor's face.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake was as long as Thor's leg and half as thick, with lovely poison-green scales and a pattern of black diamonds down his back.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Is this more of your joking?" Thor asked, annoyed. "Could you not leave this poor animal out of it?" The snake thrashed wildly in his hands, seeking escape. Thor adjusted his grip so as not to drop or injure it. "There now, it's all right, friend. No one's going to hurt you."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake must have believed him. It struck in the direction of his hand once for good measure, then settled down and let him hold it. Thor petted it at the back of its neck- at least, what passed for the back of the neck on a snake- and felt a vague sort of pride that it didn't seem to cringe away from him. Now that it wasn't startled within an inch of its life, it seemed quite docile.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Thor?" Shuri asked, cautious. He must have been making a face that was worrying her, but he couldn't concentrate on that now. Now he was occupied examining the snake.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Green and black. <i>Green and black</i>- why didn't he think of it before?</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor held the snake up at perfect bite him on the nose level and stared into the black bulbs of its eyes. "Loki?" he asked, only a hair above his breath in volume.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake made no move to bite him on the nose, or indeed, do anything else. It seemed to be content to lie in his hands, not giving off any sign of magical powers.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Please," Thor said. "If it's you...."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake continued doing nothing.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Thor," Shuri said again, quieter and sadder this time.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor swallowed and stroked a hand down the side of the long, sinewy body. The snake coiled itself tight around his arm in response, as if it were embracing him with every ounce of love and comfort it had to provide- in a way that, Thor was loath to admit, Loki never would. </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Against his will, Thor's eyes stung with the slightest of tears.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Peter saw it and panicked. "It was her idea!" he blurted out, pointing, accusatory, at Shuri. "She thought you'd think it was funny!"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The princess made an exasperated tsk and looked at Peter with (Thor fought down a lump in his throat) heartbreakingly familiar disdain. "This is how quickly you would give up under torture? Remind me never to count on you in a crisis."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Thor," Peter started to say. "I mean, Mr. Odinson, sir. Um, are you all right?"</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>I am having an emotional breakdown over the realization that the random wild animal you threw at me isn't my dead brother,</i> Thor thought about saying. <i>I am struggling with myself, all the time, trying to carry on with my life while everyone around me watches me drown and I am not all that sure I want them to save me.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <b>I am crying over a snake.</b>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor sniffed and forced his voice to sound hale and hearty. "Must everyone persist in asking me this foolish question? I feel as though I have answered it five thousand times in five days," Thor said. Fortunately, he hadn't the energy to put any real fire into it, so the statement came out wry and rhetorical, instead of wounded and furious. He wouldn't have to muddle through apologizing to the boy later.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"No, no, no, no- I know, sir, I'm sorry," Peter said. "You just- you kind of look a little--" He struggled for words, then gave up.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Fine," Thor said, hoping he managed enough insistence to discourage further questions. "I look fine."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>For good measure, he beamed at them. Peter and Shuri winced.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"May we return to your laboratory now?" Thor asked.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The walk back was awkward but mercifully silent.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>---</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor opened the lid of the terrarium Shuri had prepared for him and laid the snake inside. If the drastic decrease in space from the entire jungle to these four glass walls<br/>
bothered Thor's new serpentine friend, he didn't show it. He slithered along the terrarium floor until he found the warmest spot to curl up in and went straight to sleep.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"You're lazy," Thor noted aloud to no one in particular. "You'll be too fat to return to the wild inside of a year."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake ignored him, determined to have his nap.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"I suppose I don't blame you," Thor said. "It has been a busy day."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He sat on his bed where he could keep a good view of the snake, even though he wasn't doing anything. He supposed that was all the proof he needed that it wasn't Loki. Loki would have drawn the line at being put in a glass box.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>"Don't take this the wrong way," Thor said, "but I wish you weren't really a snake." He touched the glass. "Not that you aren't a very lovely snake. I just wish...." He shook his head. "Never mind."</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Loki would make such fun of him if he could see him now, he thought.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>Why does it not surprise me that you have brought home a snake to replace me?</i>, he imagined Loki saying.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>He's not <b>replacing</b> you,</i> Thor thought. <i>He is filling a temporary void in my life that you left behind. That's nothing like replacement. </i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>Oh, a rebound snake, I see.</i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>A rebound snake? That doesn't even make sense!</i> Thor thought. <i>That's if you lose one snake and get another snake, but it's only a temporary snake.</i> He thought about what he had just imagined saying for a moment. <i>Shut up, it's still not the same.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Loki would have smirked for days over that.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>The snake moved a little, making himself into a tighter ball, as if he were still trying even in his sleep to make himself comfortable. Thor stroked his fingers along the glass in a manner like petting him. "I suppose you're going to need a name," he said.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>He thought for the briefest of seconds of naming the snake Loki and discarded the idea almost as fast as it had occurred to him. Loki might have liked having lavish tributes to himself, but a living creature- especially a <i>pet</i>- sharing his name wouldn't have counted to him. It would be far too much like Thor didn't miss him and had just found himself a newer, more agreeable Loki to love instead.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>I could never do that to you,</i> Thor thought.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>How sentimental,</i> he imagined Loki saying, in that pretending-not-to-be-pleased way he had.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i><i>Yes, well, it's a sentiment depriving me of an easy thing to call a snake,</i> Thor thought. <i>So it wouldn't kill you to be properly appreciative.</i></i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>Thor turned his gaze to the ceiling for a moment and wondered if he should be worried about himself for scolding a figment of his imagination for not properly appreciating him.</i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>I already realized I shouldn't be crying over a snake,<i> he thought. <i>I have had enough of self awareness for the day.</i></i></i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He turned back to the terrarium.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>If it's not going to be after me,</i> he imagined Loki saying, <i>then what <b>are</b> you going to call this little beast?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor thought about it for a moment. <i>I could call him Jörmungandr,</i> he thought.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>A bit unimpressive to be the Midgard Serpent,</i> Loki would have said. <i>Though perhaps he'll grow.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>I was also thinking maybe Steve,</i> Thor thought.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He could picture the face Loki would make so clearly. <i>Steve?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>
          <i>Why not? It's as good a name as any.</i>
        </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>After your friend?</i> Loki would've asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>He has the least objectionable name of any of my living friends,</i> Thor thought, <i>and none of the emotional baggage of any of the dead ones.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>He compared me to his cyborg assassin friend who never talks,</i> Loki would say.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>You could do worse than having someone who was your enemy compare you to a friend,</i> Thor thought.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor didn't know what Loki would have said to that. He looked again at the snake. <i>I wish,</i> he thought, <i>that it wasn't a snake. That it really had been you.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>I know,</i> he imagined Loki saying. <i>If I were real, I would probably wish it were me, too.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked at the snake for a little while longer, then turned off the light. "Goodnight," he said to Jörmungandr-or-maybe-Steve, who by any name still wasn't Loki.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The next day, Thor awoke to the palace abuzz with activity. There seemed to be more people than he had ever seen here before and many of them were people he didn't recognize. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony seemed to be in his element. "Okay, Avengers and Avengers-adjacent people! This way, please! There's a lot to do and I got one big clipboard for everyone to be choosing off of! If everyone could just form a line, please- thank you!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Peter the Spider was already rushing to go choose for himself one of the better chores. Thor stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "What is happening?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Peter looked excited, then like he realized he should not be looking excited and was attempting something more somber, and landed somewhere at "funeral attendee with a planned sexual liaison afterward." "Oh, uh, King T'Challa's girlfriend showed up this morning with the news that one of their mag levs derailed during the, uh, the thing, and Mr. Stark says we need all hands on deck to go help clean up. The grid's still down out there, so she had to drive all the way up here to get any help from anybody and probably lots of people already died waiting, so we gotta hurry."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ah." Thor looked at where Stark was apparently doling out chores and rubbed his hands together. Something heroic to do. The very thing that had been missing from his life of late.<br/>
Even just thinking those sentences felt ridiculous, but Thor tried to shake it off. This had been his life once. It had been all he wanted at the time. Surely this return to routine was just what he needed to be not having imaginary conversations with Loki and crying over snakes. Thor stepped up to the end of the line and waited his turn to claim something useful.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>When he reached the front, Tony looked skeptical. "The ghost of Blackbeard is ready to step up and do something more challenging than babysitting?" He seemed to wince at himself when he finished the question.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wasn't sure how to respond to either the wince or the jibe, so he pretended it had been in the spirit of honest inquiry. "It seems to me that it's time I tried."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony made a thoughtful hmm and looked at him over the top of his sunglasses. "Right. Well, just in case, I'm assigning you a babysitter." He turned his head and shouted, "Your Majesty!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>King T'Challa, in his full panther regalia minus the mask, made his way over to them. He looked very put upon, as though he had had his fill of Tony Stark trying to take charge. "Yes, Mr. Stark? May I help you?" Thor was impressed. He managed to sound only a little sarcastic.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thor," Tony said, his voice full of significance, "would like to volunteer to help."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>T'Challa looked over at Thor, sobering in a way that made Thor hate most of the known universe. They had been having conversations about him. "Ah," T'Challa said. "I see."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Think maybe," Tony asked, "we could give him some company that, I don't know, knows the area better than he does?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor bit his tongue. He would not whinge like a child over this state of affairs. He was not in charge here and he would do what he was asked like a mature person. And then perhaps he would get some sort of vengeance when they least expected it. Perhaps drawing a penis on Tony's forehead in his sleep.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We don't have many hands to spare," T'Challa said. "But perhaps he could be of help to Nakia with the children."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony looked at Thor with his most obvious huckster smile. "Kids!" he said. "Who doesn't love working with kids? Thor, I know you do."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Five, Thor decided. Five penises on his face. "Of course I would be happy to be of assistance to your children." </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>T'Challa gestured towards a pretty, short-haired woman who looked busier than everyone else. "Nakia," he said. "She will tell you what needs to be done."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you," Thor said before he nodded and headed in her direction.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia didn't have much to say to him on their journey to the crash site. She was tense and focused, turned inward ten steps ahead of the rest of them, planning each step of what to do next. Thor both envied her determination and felt sick with himself for coveting someone's reaction to a tragedy.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>When they got there, the train had already been moved and the injured, dead, and dying cleared away. By machine, it seemed, which shouldn't have surprised Thor- Wakanda had the best machines on Midgard, from what he could tell.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia, still in laser-focused crisis mode, started issuing orders to everyone around her, switching between two or three languages as needed. "The injured that can be moved are on the fourth platform in the depot," she said. "Mr. Stark, I want you and your drones evacuating them to the hospital as fast as you can. Captain Rogers knows the way, I want you following his lead. Mr. Parker, Her Highness says you can make a stronger material than we have even here, in any size you want. You can put that to use making bandages. Anyone with any medical training at all should be distributing them and trying to turn people that can't be moved into ones that can be, as many as possible. Fast. Now!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor watched everyone start hurrying to comply. Even T'Challa and Shuri, though Nakia had no title to command them. She turned to him, sparing the briefest of smiles- probably so he wouldn't be offended if she was brusque- and said, "Thor, yes? With me. This way."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor followed her. "You command well," he said. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia was only half-listening. "It is not my first time."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I had wondered," he said. "Is this part of your role as a consort?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>That got her full attention. "I am not his consort," she said. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I see," Thor said. "I apologize if that offended you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She shrugged, though she still seemed less than best pleased by the assumption. Thor almost felt defensive- there was nothing wrong with being a consort; his mother had been one and Asgard wouldn't have run without her- but that would have involved both talking to a stranger about his mother and trying to tell her how she should feel about something, and it would have been very hard for him to say which of those sounded less appealing. So he let it drop, asking instead, "What is our purpose here? I was told only that I would be aiding your children."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"These are some of the survivors of the crash. The injured have already been separated, so these are the healthy ones."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt a brief surge of grateful respect that she didn't call them the lucky ones.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Many of these children are lost and scared," Nakia said, "with parents dead or injured. We are going to be going through and documenting each one by name and, if possible, birthdate and whatever other identifying information we can get. We want to get them somewhere safe and getting proper services without misplacing any."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You want me to ask their names and write them down?" Thor asked, awkward. It was a much more administrative sort of heroing than he was used to.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia must have been able to tell what he was thinking. She gave him a skeptical look. "Unless you would rather be doing something else?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had an epiphany as to how Nakia ordered T'Challa around so easily. Being on the receiving end of such a look made him want to do whatever she asked, no matter how unusual for him, so he wouldn't find out what look she would make if he disappointed her. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No, no," he said. "I- would love to make identifying notes on each of these children. I can think of nothing I would like better." He gave her his most convincing smile.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia looked rattled by it. "All right," she said. She gave him a tablet with a form that took up the whole screen and a stamp gun with some sort of luminescent ink. "Fill out the form for each one you talk to and give them a tag when you are done so that we don't waste time getting the same ones."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Right," Thor said. "Forms, tags, got it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Well, there was one thing to say about this sort of heroics: it was fast and easy. Wakanda may have had an unexpected shortfall of emergency service personnel in the wake of a land war and then a thousand Thanos-related disasters, but the procedures and protocols they had in place were impressively efficient. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why is your smile weird?" asked one little girl while Thor was tapping her name onto the form.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It's not," he said. "Why is <i>your</i> smile weird?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The little girl didn't seem offended by this. More confused, really, than anything. "I'm not smiling," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"A little bit?" Thor tried. He held his fingers apart an almost invisibly small distance.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," she said, shaking her head, solemn.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe just a small amount," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You are weird," the little girl said. "White people are weird."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor finished taking down her information, then stuck a tag- a little black chip with a glowing blue serial number on it- to her wrist. As she ran to join the nurses, social workers, and other tagged children in a comfortable-looking tent, Thor crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her back.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Hmmph. Now who's weird?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>At his elbow, Nakia laughed. "You're not bad with children."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Even if you are a little weird," she added.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor made the face again, this time at her. Nakia laughed again.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Is this what you do?" Thor asked, straightening his face out. His prosthetic eye liked to stick in place if he rolled it too far in any direction.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," Nakia said, "but I have been stuck in such circumstances so many times, I know what to do. And I have the king's ear so I can call him for help faster than other people."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What about you?" she asked. "Is this going to be what you do now?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It's what I used to do before," Thor said. "I don't know if it will be what I do from now on."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh?" Nakia asked. "Why not?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried to shrug it off as beneath discussion. "I need a change in my life."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia looked skeptical but didn't pursue the matter any further. "We are done here," she said, "for the most part. The social workers will have to take it from here with what's left."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What's left?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia shook her head. "Babies," she said, "too young to have their tribal marks or answer questions. Finding their families will take more resources than we have right here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh," Thor said. He looked around and sure enough, there were a fair number of babies being handled by medical personnel. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"To be honest," Nakia said, "I don't know that we will find anyone to take them at all. Their parents are among the accident victims and if they were in any condition to claim their babies, I think they would have already."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked at the babies again and swallowed hard at a lump that was trying to form in his throat. "Just because they have no one now doesn't mean they have no one at all."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia gave something like a conceding shrug. "There may be someone."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"And even if there isn't," Thor said, "that doesn't mean they should give up."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia gave him a puzzled look.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They can still have meaningful lives full of- adventure, a-and excitement," Thor said. "And who knows what else!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia looked even more confused. "The... babies who can't talk yet?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Of course," Thor said. "Who else would I be speaking of?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nakia nodded very, very slowly. "Right," she said. "Please excuse me." She stepped away.<br/>
Thor kept his eyes on the babies. One was so small, Thor could hardly believe humans came in that size. Asgardians were bigger.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>So were Frost Giants, usually.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor was inches away from snatching the tiniest baby away from the nurses when Stark came to him, whipping off his sunglasses.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Heeeey," Tony said, drawing out the 'e' so the word seemed to have six syllables where one would do. "Thor. Moon Pie. Can we talk in private for a minute?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm fine," Thor said automatically.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh, <i>are</i> you?" Tony asked. "Because that would be pretty good news, compared to the news that you're making the non-superheroes uncomfortable."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Ah, Thor thought. That's where Nakia went.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony seemed to realize that he sounded harsher than he must have intended, sighing and pinching hard at the bridge of his nose. "Look," he said. "You're worrying people. You're worrying Cap and Natasha and me, and you're starting to worry Wakandan strangers who don't even know you. We are, like, five 'Hey, Tony, we need to do something about Thor' conversations away from staging an intervention."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor frowned. "Is this not an intervention?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"This? No," Tony said. "This is a conversation between, you know, work buddies saying that if you need to talk, then you should really work on finding someone you can talk to, because you need to get your shit together."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wanted to be able to meet Tony's eyes and say that he was fine, but the sight of Tony Stark looking so agonized and pitying made it impossible. Tony had eyes like a very loyal dog set in the face of a very uncomfortable man and the mix made Thor want to slink off somewhere he wouldn't bother anyone.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I need water," Thor said instead.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Something about that made Tony look relieved. "Yes- go forth and hydrate. Get some fresh air, take a moment to collect yourself. Normal living with grief things."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried not to roll his eyes as he walked away.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"And I mean it," Tony called after him, "about that talking to someone thing! Have you tried Bruce? I recommend Bruce. He's a doctor!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave in and rolled his eyes. "He's not that sort of doctor!" he shouted back.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that!" Tony said. "Get better! Go, team!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor waited until he was sure he was out of sight, then sagged against a tree.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They don't know how to talk to you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>This came from a raspy voice Thor didn't recognize, a person he didn't know when he turned around. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Sorry," he said. "What?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She was bald, blue and violet, and looked like she was working on being more machine than woman, though she was probably only about halfway there. Her eyes, currently fixed on him, were blacker than any he had seen before, almost more like holes in her head designed to suck in all light and life in the room. She would've been intimidating, he thought, if he still had feelings other than missing Loki and being a failure.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They don't know how to talk to you," she repeated. "They know it could've been them and that makes you frightening. They know you deserve their sympathy and that makes them feel guilty for their fear- and for their relief that it isn't them."  She paused to tinker with a loose screw in her arm. "They don't know how to talk to you when just looking at you makes them feel so many things."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wanted to argue- to defend Stark, Rogers, the princess and the spider, all the rest- but there was an unfortunate ring of truth to what she said. If anyone had any ideas for what to say, he probably wouldn't have been inundated with offers to listen. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"And you?" he asked. "Who are you, stranger? Do you think you know how to talk to me?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"My name is Nebula," she said. "And I know that talking isn't what's going to make you feel better."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. That felt true, too. "A pleasure to meet you. At least, as much of a pleasure as it can be, considering the circumstances."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula made a conceding gesture, as though small pleasantries weren't within her skill set, but she more or less agreed with him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt his face take a grimmer turn and for a moment was pleased that he had had enough of a feeling to make an expression the natural way. "And what, if I may ask, makes you so knowledgeable on the subject?" He meant, <i>Whom did you lose?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula seemed to understand that, because she said,  with a small break in her voice like iron dragging over rock, "Gamora was my sister."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Was. Thor felt a pinprick of guilt. He had noticed he hadn't seen Gamora around lately. It hadn't broken through the fog he'd been in to question why.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm sorry," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula waved it away as a small thing of no consequence. At least, that's what her hand indicated. Her eyes seemed to tell a different story. Thor wondered if that's what he looked like to everyone else. It might go a long way towards explaining why no one believed the pretense that he was fine.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No one knows how to talk to me, either," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>It would have been a lie to say the words died on his tongue. Thor got as far as opening his mouth, confident that he would know the exact thing to say to her, and found that the words had not so much as been conceived there. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I knew your sister," he tried.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>By Nebula's expression, it sounded as inadequate to hear as it felt to say. "Many people did."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Briefly," Thor added, so he would feel less like he was pretending an intimacy he and Gamora had not had. "Very briefly. A day, perhaps." </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked blank yet somehow more wretched.  "A recent day?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The day Thanos killed my brother," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The day of the snap?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The very same."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The last day of her life." She looked down and began tinkering again with her arm. Thor wondered if it pained her or if it was just a nervous habit. "He killed her for the soul stone."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor swallowed. "So we have that in common."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>There was an uncomfortable beat.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"He would like that," Nebula said. Her tone turned so bitter that Thor's mouth soured in sympathy. He wished he had something to rinse it out with. "Killing more people in the same day- he would have thought it was an efficient use of his time."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor winced. He wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to have Thanos as a father. It wasn't impossible- or at least, didn't seem as though it would be, he supposed he had no idea how old Thanos really was. But Thanos could have taken Asgard. Thor and Loki could have been raised as his children.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor's heart gave an unnatural ache. Perhaps Loki would be alive now, if...</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>No. Probably not. One look at Nebula told Thor that Thanos had not been the gentlest of fathers. And Loki had been such a delicate child. Mother had spent half Thor's toddler days, it seemed in his mind, scolding him for not being more careful of the baby.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He hurt again. What would Mother say if she were here to see this? How angry would she be?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had been silent for too long. Nebula was watching him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"My apologies," he said. He tried to smile. "More and more, my mind wanders like an old man's --"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You were thinking about your brother," she said, flat, as if she expected nothing else. "Yours is too honest a face to lie."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I hate to worry the others," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You don't worry me," Nebula said. It wasn't any less flat, but it was a- an almost kinder sort of flatness. A fact, maybe, but a fact that it gave him relief to hear. Nebula cared enough to ask, but not enough to be upset by the answer. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor hadn't realized he needed such finely-tuned caring before.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He smiled at her, genuine for the first time in weeks. "You don't worry me, either," he said, with a bit of an air of an offer.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula snorted and rolled her eyes. But, Thor noticed, she didn't slink away. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Would you like to meet my snake?" Thor asked. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula tilted her head at him like she would be raising her eyebrows if she had any.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He winced. "I just heard it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good." She went silent. Then, "I wouldn't mind meeting your pet."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"He's much more of a friend than a pet," Thor said. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The look Nebula gave him said <i>Don't push it</i> as clear as if she had verbalized it aloud. Thor took it as a cue to stop talking and take her to his rooms.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>It turned out Jörmungandr-or-maybe-Steve liked her. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula was excellent company. She didn't ask Thor if he was okay all the time, didn't probe him for his feelings about Loki. She didn't try to fill their silences with awkward attempts to cheer him up. She didn't care if Thor was "withdrawing socially" or "grieving in unhealthy ways." (Thor would thank Stark's computer friend to keep her judgments to herself.)<br/>
Nebula just let him be. Thor hadn't realized how pressured to get over his grief he had felt until he found someone who didn't seem to be tripping over her pity for him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Sometimes, I think about how bad it would be, really, if I found a death god who would let me trade my life for Loki's," he said to her one day, relishing the way she didn't look aghast and urge him not to think that way, or try to tell him <i>But Loki wouldn't want--</i>, as though anyone on Earth would know what Loki would have wanted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Instead, Nebula looked dubious. "You'd still be apart," she said. "He'd be stuck here without you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Perhaps he wouldn't mind," Thor said, "if he only had the chance to live again."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She looked, if anything, even more dubious. "You don't make a very compelling case for life without the rest."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She had him there. Still, he wasn't ready to concede the point. "Loki was always eager to strike out on his own."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula was unconvinced. "You only care about that when you can't. You wish it back the second you have to do it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor sighed but nodded. "You would know better than I would, I think."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I would," she agreed, choosing not to elaborate.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>They were seated on the roof of the Wakandan royal palace, watching the celestial bodies above go about their nightly rounds. It seemed to take eons for them to get anywhere. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What about you?" Thor asked. "Do you ever think about what you would do to have your sister back?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What's the point?" Nebula said. "Wishing won't make her live again."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What if it could?" Thor nudged her with his elbow. "What if you had, say, the reality stone and could make everything the way you wished it?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula was practical to the point where it deterred any sort of daydreaming. "The stones were all destroyed."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The gauntlet was," Thor said, "but the stones live on." </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>That got Nebula to whip her head in his direction. "You have the stones?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"<i>I</i> don't," Thor said. "But they're somewhere around here. Stark has them- or T'Challa, perhaps. Who knows?" He meant, Who cares? They couldn't actually use the stones to wish Loki and Gamora back. The cleanup they were still doing after Thanos' mess proved that the stones were too unpredictable, too dependent on specific orders to work. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula squinted at him, then shrugged. "If I had command of the stones and could have anything I wanted, then yes. Yes, I would ask for my sister back."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. "What would you give up? If sacrifice could do the job?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula thought for a moment, watching the stars above. She was quiet for so long, Thor thought that she might have decided not to answer him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I think I would start with the stones," she said. "If I could take them and trade them to a being that powerful, then they could do anything."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rubbed his arm, unsure why that should make him feel chilled. "Well, it's no left arm, but I suppose it would do."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>It became a sort of game for them. What Would I Do If I Could Have My Sibling Back?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"There was a time, when we were children," Thor said, lifting a heavy piece of wreckage from a crashed plane (Stark had decreed no more widows and orphans duty for Thor), "when Loki turned me into a frog."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula took the piece- a jet engine, Thor thought, though he couldn't be sure- and heaved it onto the back of the hauler. "What's a frog?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It's a small, green, reptile sort of thing, it likes water," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Like your snake?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No, not at all like my snake," Thor said, offended on his snake's behalf. "Snakes are long and powerful- noble, majestic animals. Frogs are squat little creatures that have legs but can't stand up or walk, they just sort of jump around and flop."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Snakes can't walk or stand, either," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor picked up another turbine and flung it into the hauler. "But snakes don't have legs."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"So?" Nebula clearly did not understand why snakes were superior to frogs.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Never mind," Thor said. "The point is, Loki turned me into a frog once. It may have been the lowest point of my entire life until recently, and if it meant he could be alive again, I would choose to be a frog forever."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked at him for a moment. Though her expressions could be very difficult to read- no eyebrows, flat black eyes, and lips whose color blended into her jaw contributed to a face like a blank section of wall- he was pretty sure this one said, <i>Is that supposed to impress me?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor sniffed and grabbed another warped chunk of metal that was bigger than he was. "You would understand if you had ever seen a frog."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula nodded. "When we were children," she said, "I once faced Gamora in double-wielding combat. She took one of my weapons from me and then used it to cut the other from my hand by severing my fingers."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tsked. "Siblings," he said, shaking his head.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula gave another nod, this time with a palpable air of Right? Seriously. "The pain was incredible," she said. "Worse when our father replaced them with mechanical fingers that had to be attached to the bone. He allowed me only as much anesthesia as it would take to prevent the pain from killing me."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor cringed.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They hurt forever from then on and I had to learn to do everything through the pain," she said. "It was a relief the next time she beat me and Father took the whole hand."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wasn't sure what to say. "That- sounds rough," he tried.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shrugged. "I would wear those fingers of excruciating pain once more if it meant Gamora would live."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had to spend a while having to think about what he could offer that would hurt quite like that. The problem with making it a game was that occasionally, it got competitive.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I would personally hunt down and slaughter every former enemy of Thanos that had ever so much as glanced resentfully in Gamora's direction if I could have my sister back!" Nebula shouted in his face once when it got particularly heated.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Well, I would seek out Thanos' most torturous allies and let them do their worst until Loki lived again to see it!" Thor shouted back. "I wouldn't even need him back, just alive somewhere while the Chitauri ate my liver, I don't care!" He threw his arms out to his sides and into the air to show just how much he didn't care.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula folded her arms across her chest with an indignant sort of huff.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket, who had been sitting on the sidelines watching, stared at them in terrified wonder. "I just asked what you guys wanted on your pizza," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor shot a chagrined look at the floor. "Pepperoni would be fine."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I like pepperoni, too," Nebula said, also avoiding Rocket's gaze.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket shook his head. "You guys know this is unhealthy, right?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Silence, trash panda," Nebula said, though without much fire to it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Agreed," Thor said. "I respect you greatly, sweet rabbit, but we do not welcome your judgment here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket shook his head again and walked away, muttering to himself. "Should I do something? Nah, I shouldn't do something. Someone else will do something <i>eventually</i>...."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rubbed the back of his neck, awkward now that Rocket was gone. "Nebula, my friend, do you think we may be spending too much time dwelling on their deaths?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula didn't even pause to think. "No," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt relieved. "Good," he said. "Me, either."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the morning of what was supposed to be their last day of cleanup in Wakanda, Thor woke up to some loud crashing and cursing. This was something he should probably have been used to by now- loud commotions and people arriving with news had been ramping up to becoming the norm for staying in Wakanda. Still, he wished whoever it was would keep it down; he and Nebula had decided to add an alcohol component to their regular game the night before, and all he could remember of it now was that it had happened. Probably. Just judging by the hangover.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He got up and padded down the stairs in search of water. This commotion wasn't nearly as big as other commotions around here had been, Thor noticed. There was no rushing of the War Dogs and T'Challa's kingsguard and the mysterious emergency personnel who seemed to appear out of nowhere when they were being called upon and vanish into the ether once they were done. Tony wasn't annoying everyone by trying to take charge of the situation and Steve wasn't quietly apologizing to T'Challa for that and asking what he wanted them to be doing. As far as Thor could tell, actually, it was just Drax, Groot, and Rocket, with Quill probably off somewhere involving Nebula. Though Thor couldn't be sure about that last bit; Nebula rarely talked about her family, save to express her thoughts on whether Quill had been good enough for her sister. (He wasn't.)</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good morning, friends," he said, then winced over the volume of his own voice. He tried again in a whisper: "Good morning."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yeah, uh, morning," Rocket said, looking a bit shifty, as though Thor had caught him planning to steal something.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Come to that, looking at it, that might have been what was happening. Rocket had a box in his arms and so, too, did Drax and Groot. Groot actually had several and looked very put out about it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Is everything all right?" Thor asked, frowning. He winced again and relaxed his face. He was too hungover to make expressions and they wanted him to try to read subtext. Great.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh, yeah, it's fine!" Rocket said. "We're just, uh- um--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Drax had no compunctions. "We are returning to our usual lifestyle of being mercenary heroes. We have been provided with supplies to take to our ship. Rocket is at work on the problem of how to extract vibranium before we leave."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket looked very much like he wanted to bite Drax and only wasn't doing so because it would besmirch his dignity as captain.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor really only cared about one part of it. "You're leaving?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket looked awkward, twisting his paws together. "Well," he said, "the thing is, us being here isn't really good for Quill. This planet's pretty much just about his dead mom to him. And finding out that all the things he thought were cool are actually lame and have been the whole time, but mostly the dead mom thing. And since Groot needs all of us functioning now, y'know, with--" Rocket's awkwardness became noticeably sadder, his ears drooping.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I am Groot," Groot muttered, looking upset. <i>He means now that Mom's dead and everything sucks.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Don't talk like that in front of Nebula," Rocket said. "It ain't <i>sensitive.</i>"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor's heart plummeted several more inches from his stomach to settling somewhere well into his large intestine. "Nebula's going?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Quill and Mantis are talking to her about it," Rocket said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Well. That was a small relief. At least she hadn't known already and neglected to tell him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket cleared his throat. "Er, you know, you could, uh, come with us. If you wanted."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We have noticed that you are very busy being pathetic and sad," Drax said, "but you could do that as easily on our ship as you could here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket groaned and hid his face in his paw.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'll think about it," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Quill and Mantis appeared with more boxes, Nebula trailing behind them as if she were slowed down by the weight of the conversation they had just had. He couldn't tell if that meant that she had been convinced to go or was miserable about choosing to stay. He wanted to ask, but he couldn't bear to make the expression on her face any worse. Instead he asked, "Would you like some help carrying your supplies?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Quill, Rocket, and even Groot handed him what they were carrying.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Loading the ship didn't take long. Certainly not as long as Thor would have wanted. He may not have been very attached to the Guardians of the Galaxy- he liked them, but apart from Nebula and Rocket, he barely even knew most of them- but their leaving symbolized the exact thing Thor feared was about to start happening: everyone would begin to move on. And he wasn't ready.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He swallowed. He supposed he couldn't chalk it up entirely to symbolism. Nebula had been the only one who seemed to understand.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You figured out if you want to come with us yet?" Rocket asked. He looked hopeful in a way that made Thor want to hug him just a little bit. It was nice to know that Rocket would miss him as much as he would miss Rocket.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Perhaps someday," Thor said. "Now- now I think would be too soon."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Rocket sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I guess. Bye for now then, big guy." He grabbed as many of Thor's fingers as he could comfortably hold in one paw and gave them a firm shake.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Until we meet again, sweet rabbit," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Everyone else seemed to take that as their cue to start boarding and saying their goodbyes.<br/>
"It was very nice to get to know you, Thor," Mantis said. "I like your kind eyes and large biceps."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you, Mantis," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Later, dude," Quill said, barely even stopping as he walked up the platform into the ship. "You're still not better-looking than me!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>He's recently widowed,</i> Thor thought. <i>It's kinder not to argue with him.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Drax shook Thor's hand. "I, too, have enjoyed your kind eyes and large biceps," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you," Thor said. "You are very muscular yourself." He tried to smile.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Drax made a face. "May I offer you some advice?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Of course," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Try to smile only when you feel like smiling," Drax said. "The effect is false bordering on disturbing otherwise. You are, as Quill would say, <i>bumming me out.</i>"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor smiled a bit more genuinely this time. "I will bear that in mind."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ha! You see? I am right, that is much better," Drax said, grabbing and squeezing both of Thor's shoulders. "Have a safe journey to your recovery, my friend. I, too, was once very sad and pathetic. It does begin to feel better with time, although you will fight that and wish for it not to at first."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave a conceding, one-shouldered shrug. "True." He clapped Drax's shoulder just once. "But you have a safe journey as well."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Goodbye," Drax said, disappearing into the ship.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Only two left. Groot- and Nebula. Thor felt a spike of anxiety, waiting.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Groot gave Nebula a sad look. "I am Groot?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," she admitted. "Sorry."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Groot looked even sadder. "I am Groot."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula gave his arm an awkward pat. "You will see me again someday," she said. "Go with your fathers for now."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Groot hung his head, but started plodding up the ramp to obey. "I am Groot," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula nodded. "Goodbye."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had never felt like more of a selfish clod for being relieved.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>They backed away a safe distance while the ship came to life and watched in silence while it rose to a hover, then soared, then disappeared into space.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula sat down on a nearby stone. Her legs stayed stretched out in front of her, her elbows keeping her propped so she stayed straight-backed, yet there was still an air about her of huddling into herself. Maybe it was her closed-off expression. Her mind seemed very, very far away.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor sat next to her. "You stayed," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I did." She was still staring off into the distance. The horizon, specifically. She seemed to be deliberately not looking up into the sky and the implied reaches of space beyond it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why?" he asked. "Not that I am ungrateful to keep your company, but... were I in your position, I would want to be with my family."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shrugged. "They were more Gamora's family than mine."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Young Groot called you 'aunt,'" Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>That seemed to penetrate her wall a little. She had to take a moment to compose herself before she answered. "He did. He has since he was very small."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"He is your sister's son," he said. "They- tend to do that."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"If anyone left alive in this universe is my family, it probably would be him," Nebula said. "But...."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"But what?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shook her head. "I don't think I would be good for him," she said. "Not now. Not like this."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor started to reach an arm out to wrap around her shoulders. Nebula gave him a warning look. He stopped and patted her arm instead.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I think it's good that you're thinking of him," he offered.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shrugged. "I guess." There was a beat. "Do we have to talk about this?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Not at all," Thor said. "Not if you don't want to."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I don't want to," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. They sat together on the stone for the next few hours, watching life go on in Wakanda as usual. Neither of them said a word.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The problem with Nebula being in a funk where she didn't feel like talking was that Thor didn't really have anyone else to talk to.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He knew this assessment wasn't fair- Steve, Tony, Natasha, even Peter and Princess Shuri had all offered to listen to him. But Thor didn't really want to be listened to, at least not in that way. He wanted to have a reciprocal conversation about the things that were bothering him without actually doing any of the work to try and feel better about it. It was a difficult position to explain to anyone and only Nebula had ever really gotten it before now. Without her, any of the things he wanted to do as part of his grieving- for instance, wishing Loki alive in a morbid game of imaginary self-sacrifice- just made other people worried and uncomfortable.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Which they already were, but at least when he could talk to Nebula about it, he wasn't actively making it worse.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He was stuck again with staying in his rooms, talking one-sided to his snake, and having imaginary conversations with Loki.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>It would be one thing if we could somehow incorporate this into our usual routine,</i> Thor imagined telling him. <i>But it's hard to make a morbid game out of what you would do to see your family again while your family's alive and you're <b>choosing</b> not to be with them.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor could remember no occasions on which Loki had been able to offer helpful advice for problems with friends, and that deficiency was present in his imagination. <i>That... sounds difficult?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>You're hopeless,</i> Thor thought, glaring at the ceiling.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>If you don't know what to do, I don't know how you expect <b>me</b> to know what to do,</i> Loki would say. <i>Seeing as I am, in fact, still a figment of your imagination.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Yes, well, I haven't anyone else to ask,</i> Thor wanted to snap.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Anyone other than, remember, you,</i> Loki would've said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rubbed his forehead. <i>I feel as though we're going in circles.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>We are,</i> he imagined Loki saying. <i>Because you still can't think of anything that you can do to help your friend, but you really want to.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>What would you have done?</i> Thor wondered. <i>How did you deal with things that you couldn't really deal with, when you were alive?</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>I- didn't, really,</i> Loki would say. <i>I just fomented chaos for my own amusement in situations like that. Either they would think it was funny and the problem would stop, or they would get angry and the problem would stop.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried to imagine playing a trick on Nebula. He had a feeling he would be no better- and perhaps in fact orders of magnitude worse- than Peter the Spider trying to impress Princess Shuri.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>No, that won't work,</i> Thor thought.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Well,</i> he imagined Loki asking, <i>what did <b>you</b> do? When you had no idea what to do back when things were, for lack of a better word, normal? Because you didn't ask me, that much we've proven.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Heh. <i>I would ask Father,</i> Thor thought. <i>Which is just as impossible.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Is it, now?</i> The Loki of his imagination asked, sounding amused in the way he did when Thor forgot something obvious.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Oh.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>
          <i>Oh.</i>
        </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor marched to Nebula's room, near manic with purpose, and rapped smartly on the door.<br/>
It took her a moment to drag her half metal carcass out of bed to open it. "What?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You have to tie me to a tree," Thor said, nudging his way past her to pace in her room.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula blinked. "What?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"When I was a baby," Thor said, "my father was at war with my grandfather Njordr, and he sought the wisdom to defeat him by seeking counsel from <i>his</i> father, Bor. So he hung in a tree for nine days until he had a vision of the other side and could ask his father what to do." He beamed at her.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Which of them won?" Nebula asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nobody won, they resolved it peacefully and lived as one family after that, that's not the point," Thor said. "The point is I can see my father and ask him what we should do."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked skeptical. "About what?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Everything!" Thor said. "What we should do to make this any less terrible! How we go on with Loki and Gamora lost to us! What I can do to keep you from regretting your choice to stay here!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula's jaw went slack. She looked overwhelmed. "Thor," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I don't regret my choice to stay," she said. "And I don't need you to seek a dead man's advice on how we move on."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh." Thor tried to keep the hurt from his voice, but he couldn't help it. He felt deflated, even a little snubbed. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula could see that, he guessed, because she tried to rally. "I didn't mean to make you worry. I've just- needed some time to think."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"About what?" Thor asked. "If not regret for your choice, then why have you been sulking in here?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked insulted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"All right, not sulking," Thor said. "<i>Thinking</i>, then."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She looked at him for a moment, as though trying to gauge him for worthiness. With a tiny, all but imperceptible shake of her head, she found him wanting. "Nothing worth getting into," she said. "The point is that I'm fine. You don't have to spend nine days in a tree for me."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded, then sat down on the edge of her bed. He should have been relieved, he knew. Thor was no wizard. He understood the piercing of the veils of death about as well as he could follow the Midgardian sport of golf and the reasons why anyone would ever play it. And it should have made him happy to know that Nebula hadn't withdrawn because she was too miserable even for him to reach.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Still, he felt bereft.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula sat next to him. "Is it so bad," she asked, "not to hang in a tree for nine days?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor shrugged. "It felt good to have some sort of plan of action," he said. Then he admitted, "I think maybe I just wanted to see my father again." He swallowed. "And- maybe my mother or brother, too. They're all together now." <i>Without me,</i> he didn't say.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula cocked her head. "Why not do it anyway?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What, you mean hang in a tree for nine days just to see my family in Valhalla?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Do you think it might work?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She shrugged. "Then you might as well try."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor peered out over the edge of the cliff. He had been over higher heights before- but he had always had Mjolnir before. This was a little higher than he was sure he could fall from without hurting himself.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"This should do," he said. He began tying the rope around his legs.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked skeptical. "Tell me again why I have to <i>tie you</i> to the tree?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor flung one end of the rope over a branch once he was sure his legs were secure. "It's going to be hot and uncomfortable," he said. "I'm going to be tempted to abandon the quest before it's done. The tying makes sure that doesn't happen."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula seemed to be waiting for him to come up with a better reason. When he didn't, she said, "How do you know what he saw was real?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I haven't the faintest idea, to tell you the truth," Thor said, "but he did resolve the conflict, remember."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula's skepticism visibly grew. "I, too, might see visions of the other side if you tied me to a tree for nine days."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"True," Thor said. After all, he knew nothing of the history or magic of Nebula's family or people. "If you wish to stay with me to have your own visions, you may."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe later," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded, then reached up to pluck out his prosthetic eye. "Could you hold this for me?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula took it. "You may only have one eye on a vision quest?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor shrugged. "Father did."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula narrowed her eyes. "Was that required?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe," Thor said. "Who can say?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You," Nebula said. "You should be able to say. Have you never done this before?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"My father only died a few weeks ago! When do you think I should have?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula stared at him for a moment. "When you die, I'm not taking your ashes all the way back to Asgard to be scattered."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Noted," Thor said. "Now hoist me up."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula sighed, but grabbed the rope and yanked. Thor's feet shot out from under him and his arms, against his will, flailed wildly as he soared up into the air, only stopping when his feet collided painfully with a tree branch.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Are you hurt?" Nebula yelled.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm fine," Thor yelled back. "Still got my eye?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"In my pocket," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Great!" he shouted. "Thank you!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The rope swayed a little as Nebula moved about on the ground, securing it to the trunk.<br/>
Brilliant, Thor thought. Nothing to do now but wait.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the morning of the second day, Thor awoke to the weight of the Iron Man suit on the branch. It was another minute before he was aware Tony was in it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good morning, Stark," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good morning," Tony said, sounding sure that this day would be anything but. "Hey, remember when we talked about grieving in healthier ways that don't scare the bejeezus out of everybody?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"This?" Thor scoffed. "This is nothing to worry about."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You mean you're not hanging upside down tied to a tree, dangling over a cliff?" Tony asked, flipping his helmet open so that Thor would have to look him in the eye.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Of course I'm hanging upside down tied to a tree dangling over a cliff," Thor said, since lying about it wasn't really available to him as an option.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Okay," Tony said, "because, see, here on our planet, the perfect time to worry is when your friend is hanging upside down tied to a tree dangling over a cliff!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"On your planet, yes," Thor said. "This is an Asgardian thing. You wouldn't understand."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony twitched his way through several expressions before settling on "threatening in an absurdly parental sort of way." "Oh-kay," he said, slow, emphatic. "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that this is an Asgardian funeral rite of some kind because I can't prove that it's not, but the second it looks like you're being adversely affected in any way, I'm pulling the plug. You will be coming out of this tree if I have to chop it down Washington-style. Got it?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Got it," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony exhaled. "Alright. Good talk."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. "You were good. Very stern, very leaderly."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thanks," Tony said. "I'm trying."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor reached over to pat him, consoling, on the knee.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the third day, Nebula was sitting on his branch, dropping pebbles down on a very loud and upset Bruce.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You guys!" he was yelling. "Come down! This is dangerous! Do you know how many people on Earth die every year of exposure?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked to Nebula. "When did you join me?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Just now," she said. "There was a meeting about you. When Stark told the rest of them how long you intended to stay, he panicked and was talking about cutting you down now. So I came to keep watch over you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thanks," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the ground, Bruce was still yelling. "This isn't going to make it feel better, Thor! There aren't any answers you want here, because the answer is always going to be that they're dead! And I'm- I'm really sorry about that, man! I know it must be terrible!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Could you give me one of those?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula pressed a handful of pebbles into his palm. "Try to avoid his eyes, they look fragile."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Please," Thor said. "Loki and I used to do this all the time." He took aim and tossed.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ow!" Bruce cried. "What the hell? You got me right in the eye!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Then again, it has been about five hundred years since I tried it from this distance," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shrugged and threw another pebble. By Bruce's jump, it must have hit him in the toes.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You know, Nebula, you're being a really bad friend by enabling this!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You can throw another one at him if you like," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula shrugged. "It gets boring eventually."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Fair enough."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the fourth day, Thor got a visit from a vulture.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The bird came around at what Thor guessed to be noon, since it was very bright and very hot, and immediately began searching him to see if he was dead.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Hey," he said, nudging it with his knee to get its beak away from his belly, where it must have decided that he smelled sufficiently dead, since it gave him an experimental peck. "I'm alive. Go away, little friend. There's no food here for you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The vulture wasn't convinced. It hopped up his body and tried taking another bite out of his leg. Thor wiggled as much as he could to get it off. The bird gave him an offended look. He didn't know if vultures had thoughts, but if they did, this one was probably thinking, <i>You're dead. The least you can do is hold still so I can eat you if you were going to have the poor sense to die in a tree.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He must have smelled worse than he thought. Thor supposed that he was going to have to bathe for a good long time after this was over.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>When Nebula came later that day, he told her to feed it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"That's just going to attract more, you know," she said. "When it tells all of its friends."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"How many friends could it have?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>By the sixth day, Thor was having Nebula feed three vultures, four giant rats, and what he thought might be a pet cat of the royal family. It wasn't as big as any of its nearby fellows, anyway, which gave it an air of domestication. Unless he was imagining it, which he had to concede at this stage was possible.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nebula," Thor asked her, a little dizzy, "do you think they're all mocking me?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The animals?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He nodded.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor let out a sigh of relief. "Good."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the night of the eighth day, Steve climbed up into the tree. Thor wasn't sure it was Steve at first, between the fact that it was dark and that it took a moment for his vision to resolve a new shape, but there was no mistaking him once he got close. Thor had never met another human who was so triangular.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Mind if I sit here?" he asked, gesturing near Thor.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"That's Nebula's seat," he said. "You'll have to move when she comes back."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I will," Steve said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Then sit."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve sat and began twisting the cap off a water bottle. "You allowed to have food or drink while you're doing this thing?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm not sure," Thor said. "I have been erring on the side of 'no.'" He eyed Steve's water. "A prospect that's more difficult now than it was before."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe just a little?" Steve said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor thought about resisting, then decided not to. "A little."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve helped him get upright enough that he could sip without spilling or, for that matter, drowning. "A little" soon vanished in favor of draining the whole bottle in one gulp.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Sorry," Thor said. Steve waved it away.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"So tomorrow's the big day, huh?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It should be," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Have you thought about what you're going to say?" Steve was drawing another water bottle out of who knew where. Thor found it hard to care where Steve was getting it from when he could just keep drinking. The second bottle went down even faster than the first.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Not really," he said. He hadn't. He had been focused so intently on just seeing them and being with them- Father or Mother or Loki, whoever it was who came to meet him in his vision, Thor didn't care- that it had just barely occurred to him that there would be something he needed to say. "I mean to ask for advice about Nebula, now that her family is gone and she's stayed here, but apart from that..."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good enough just to say hi," Steve said. It had the sound of a guess, but not the feel of one. Thor was sure that Steve already knew that would be the answer.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Something like that," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve nodded. "I get that," he said. "I'd feel that way, too. About Bucky before he came back. About Peggy or any of my family. But, Thor..."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What are you going to do if it doesn't work?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He wanted to laugh. <i>That</i> was what Steve was worried about? Thor waved it away. "It'll work," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"But if it doesn't," Steve said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It will," Thor said. "I know you don't have this sort of thing here, but this is something that my father did when his need was great enough, and his father answered. My need is great now. He'll answer."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve sighed but didn't press the matter. "Okay," he said. "If you say so."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you," Thor said. "And also for the water."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No problem," Steve said. "You can't see it, but you look like you need it. You've got sunburn from hell."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor snorted. "I don't doubt it," he said. "I shall be writing a formal complaint to His Majesty that he keeps his outdoors too hot once this is over."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve laughed. "I'll let him know to expect a very strongly worded letter."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You do that," he said. Then he hesitated. "Now?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve looked at him, scrutinizing, then offered, "It doesn't have to be now. I can stay for a while if you want."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Well," Thor said. "I do need someone to feed my vultures when the sun comes up. They'll be back and pecking all over me if no one's ready with fresh meat."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'll... see what I can do," Steve said. There was a beat. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a little weird about animals?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I have learned that I am a little weird about a great many things of late," Thor said. "But I will admit I was warned against feeding the vultures."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve shrugged. "Self defense," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Indeed."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve produced another bottle of water and held it for Thor to drink while they watched the sun come up.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Is it happening yet?" Nebula asked. It was now well past noon on the ninth day and Thor was beginning to regret that he had never asked Father what time of day it had been when the visions finally kicked in.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor closed his eyes and took a deep breath, pondering the possibilities of meditative humming. "Not yet," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula waited for what couldn't have been more than eleven seconds. "What about now?" she asked. "Is it happening now?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Does it look like it's happening now?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I don't know," she said. "What will it look like?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wasn't sure. "Like- something. I don't know. More than just me hanging here. Probably. I think."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"This is another thing you don't know much about," Nebula said, and if Thor didn't know better, he would have thought she sounded murderous.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It's been an age since this was done by anyone," Thor said. "I'm doing what I can with scraps of stories I was told as a child that I never thought I would need."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula tilted her head. "If you don't know what these visions are like," she said, "then how can you know that you aren't having one?" It was bizarre how cool and logical Nebula could make that question sound when it would sound childish coming from anyone else.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Because," Thor said, "I just know."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"How?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Because I do."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"How?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Because- why would my vision show me you?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What if I'm not really here," she said, one corner of her lip fighting a smile.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried to smile and hold back tears at the same time. He could only manage one. "You're here," he said, reaching for her hand.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She vanished from his sight before he could reach it.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had had no concrete expectations of a vision of Valhalla. Some stories made it sound like an Asgard where no one died and Thor had always hoped that wasn't true. Sif's mother had described it as a battlefield where everyone could fight and kill as much and as gruesomely as they pleased, for none of the damage was permanent or painful, so you could decapitate your friend, see him recover to forgive you, and then let him have a turn cutting your head off. Intriguing as that sounded, Thor really wasn't in the mood.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>What he really hoped for right now, he thought, was just somewhere nice and quiet where he could see his family alone and uninterrupted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The Valhalla he woke up to wasn't any of those. It wasn't anything. There was grass beneath his feet and sky above his head, but nothing else. The ground extended flat in every direction as far as the eye could see, with no hills or mountains, no canyons or ditches, no trees or bushes, not even so much as a body of water to break up the visual monotony.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>There also weren't any signs of life- or, he supposed, former life. Thor couldn't have imagined a lonelier or more boring place if he'd tried.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Shit," he said aloud to no one. "I did it wrong."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You did it fine," said a voice behind him, warmer than the sun Thor felt but couldn't see anywhere.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He didn't have to turn to recognize it, but he turned anyway, heart beating so hard in his chest that he nearly feared it might burst. "Mother?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She was younger than he remembered her, softer and less sad. The hints of white and silver that had crept in over the years were gone; Frigga was blonder than he was. And she was smiling.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Mother!" Thor didn't remember getting close enough to sweep her into his arms and lift her into the air, but he was doing it just the same, spinning with her in his arms, over his head, like she used to do for him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Frigga laughed with pure delight, which soon became embarrassment. "Oh, Thor- put me down!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He did, but only so he could embrace her as tight as the limits of his strength would allow. He pressed his face into her shoulder and whispered, helpless, "Mother."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Frigga held him close with an iron strength she had aged past in life. "My son," she said, with a hint of relish to the words, as though she had been just as afraid as he had that she would never say them again.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor drew back, amazed all over again. "Look at you!" he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Frigga laughed again. "At me? What of you?" She touched his hair at the nape of his neck. "You visited some sort of overzealous butcher!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor's hand followed hers, sheepish. "It wasn't my choice," he said, "but I'm growing to like it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Frigga gave him a look so loving, he thought he would rather die than see it end. "I shall miss my baby's hair," she said, "but it does suit you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor hugged her close again. He had no idea how long this would last or if he would ever see her again.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>As if she could sense the thought, she squeezed his shoulder. "I'm never very far away, you know," she whispered, with a rather Loki-like hint of merry conspiracy.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor smiled, though he could feel a tremor in it. "You're a little too far for me."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She kissed his cheek. "I would be closer if I could."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He fought the urge to lean into her shoulder, he was too much taller than her for that. He squeezed her hand instead. "I know."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I hope you know that we both would."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor turned to face his father. He felt a sudden kinship with Peter the Spider, flirting poorly with Shuri- so this was what it felt like to have your jaw working while no sound came out.<br/>
Odin wasn't so much younger as he had moved into being ageless. Thor could pick out no sign of his being elderly, any more than he could point to anything that screamed of being more youthful. Thor and Loki had always said quietly among themselves that Odin must have been born old. That looked now like it was the truth.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin seemed amused. "You did seek an appointment."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor laughed, relieved that his father had been the one to break the silence. "I did," he said. "I- I hung from a tree for over a week."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"That did not escape our notice," Odin said. "Many of your friends were willing to wager that you weren't going to finish it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>His friends. Thor's heart gave an aching throb. So they were all here. Everyone. But, he reminded himself, these sorts of visions were for family. But if--</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Mother had died first, he thought. Then Father. Then, if you wanted to count her, Hela, but he doubted that she would want to see him. Loki had been the last. So it must be his turn. Mustn't it?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He had been silent too long. Frigga noticed. "What's the matter, my darling?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor hesitated. "It isn't that I'm not overjoyed to see you," he said, then looked quickly to Odin and added, "both of you. But--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"But?" Odin asked, with a patient weight to his voice that felt oddly foreboding.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor fought down the urge to shuffle his feet like a shy child. "Where is Loki?" he asked.<br/>
"Isn't he- doesn't he want to see me?" He thought of his last words to Loki and cringed. "Is he angry at me?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin and Frigga exchanged pained looks that sent Thor from nervous to near-panicked. He knew what it looked like when they had bad news. How bad was it now?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Bad enough that they had silently decided his mother should be the one to break it to him. Frigga folded Thor's hand in both of hers, squeezing tight. "Thor," she said, her voice grave and full of pity, "Loki isn't here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What?" The question seemed to come out of Thor's mouth of its own accord.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin's face was pitying, too. "He was killed by Thanos, the Great Titan," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I know," Thor said. "He put himself between Thanos and the whole of Midgard with nothing but a knife in his hand! Was that not noble enough for you and the lofty standards of Valhalla?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Of course it was!" Frigga said, sounding hurt by the suggestion.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin merely shook his head. "It never came to a question of his worth. The victims of Thanos are restricted."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Restricted from what?" Thor asked. "Restricted why?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin looked frustrated by the limitations of language for explaining something like this. "The Titan killed many, my son. Many, many more than most anyone else ever has. It marked him and it marked them."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I still don't understand," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Frigga touched Odin's elbow to forestall him, then looked to Thor. "These things are mysteries," she said, "that can be very difficult for the living to grasp. The simplest explanation is that Death couldn't stop to focus on his victims every time Thanos killed, so She gave them a place to stop for Her. Loki is there, with the rest of the people Thanos has killed."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor stared. "Then- but then when will he get here? When will I see him?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Odin laid a hand on Thor's shoulder. "Never," he said. "Thor, you will never see him."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor stumbled back from him. His knees felt weak. "Why? Surely She doesn't intend to leave them all there in some sort of afterlife stopgap!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Souls don't move well," Odin said. "They get a bit- fixated, I suppose, on where they are. To move them may be too much of a trauma. It's hard to say. The facts are these: Loki was sent to Thanopolae. No one who has ever gone into it has come back out. I'm sorry."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>That's not fair,</i> Thor wanted to say. <i>That's outrageous, even cruel.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>What came out, in a voice so small Thor could hardly believe it was his, was, "...then can I go to him?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Slowly, devastatingly, Frigga shook her head no.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt his body going slack, as though at any moment, he would collapse under his own weight.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thanos is dead," Odin said gently- or at least as gently as Odin could, which wasn't enough. "He will claim victory over no more souls. Not yours nor anyone else's."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Gamora," Thor said, his voice going raw and hoarse with hurt. "Nebula's sister. Is she...?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He didn't need to be told, but Odin answered anyway. "Yes. Her as well."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor buried his face in his hands. He felt as though the ground was falling off the world, sending him hurtling down. Maybe it was; his mother's voice sounded miles away when she cried out, "Thor!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>When Thor came to, it was in Shuri's lab. Whoever had dragged him here had put him in what felt like a lidless coffin half-filled with an enormous piece of ice. He jerked away and fell onto the floor, sending a few trays crashing and pulling a needle attached to a hovering bot out of his arm.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>There were people at his side in an instant. "Thor- easy, easy, you've got other needles in, hold still!" Steve.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Hey, buddy, calm down- we got you, it's okay, you're among friends- maybe not cute animal friends, but friends!" Tony.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>That explained why it felt like way too many arms holding him, at least. Thor made himself go still.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>His vision was still blurry and filmed over but he could make out a familiar blue and violet shape- which was the only reason he didn't recoil when it- she- reached into his empty eye socket.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula came into focus on one side. She looked tense, even angry. "What did you see?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Okay, we can find out what his spirit animal was later- five bucks on bunny, by the way," Tony said. "Right now, he needs to hop off the crazy train and over to the rest and fluids and rapid cooling- um, weird two-man hand pump thing."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Steve rubbed his forehead. "You mean a handcar?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It borderline offends me that you know that," Tony said. "But yeah, sure, that thing. Come on- be a good Norse god and get back on the freezing table--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I saw my parents," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The room became deathly silent.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked at him, too intense. "And?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry. The situation with his eyes was much the same. "They're not there," he said. "They're somewhere else. Somewhere we can never go." His voice cracked. "We've truly lost them, my friend. We'll never see my brother or your sister again."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula stared at him, silent, unblinking. It took Thor a moment to realize that she didn't know what to say.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>No one did.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>They made Thor stay in the lab recovering for two more days. Thor thought that it was probably the slowest, most resentful recovery from dehydration and heat exhaustion that any one of them had ever seen.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Once he was medically cleared, he dragged himself back to his rooms. Then he got into bed and stayed there.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thor, there's someone here to see you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor thought about lifting his head up and responding, but that sounded unbearable. He closed his eyes and hoped if he was silent long enough, she would assume he was asleep and leave.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She didn't. "Look, I realize you just discovered the depression stage of grief and I really want to let you have it, but this seems important."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>For a moment, Thor considered making a few fake snores. He didn't snore usually and even if Natasha didn't know that, Sam the Falcon did and would probably tell her so. The thought of the two of them discussing whether or not he was faking sleep to get out of having to talk to people was just embarrassing enough that he turned over to look in her direction.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha came over and crouched by his bedside, giving him the small, sad smile of one who wanted to encourage the minuscule amount of progress that effort indicated. "Look at that, he lives after all."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor could actually feel how dead and expressionless his face was. It was disconcerting. "What is so important?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Someone in a spaceship just arrived and asked for you," Natasha said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He frowned. Who did he still know that would come all the way down here- that even <i>could</i> come all the way down here?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Actually, she nearly crashed the spaceship, stumbled out of the bottom of a bottle, and said she heard a rumor the blond prince of Asgard was alive, did we know anything about it," she added.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rubbed his forehead. "Valkyrie."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You wanna come out and tell her that the reports of your death were greatly exaggerated?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He thought about having a drunk Valkyrie stick her face in his face to tell him he should probably get back to his responsibilities. The thought was not the most comforting he had ever had. "Not really," he said. "Can't you?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I wanted to start out with seeing how you reacted to the news to find out if I should be worried first," she said. "If this was an enemy or something else I should be nervous about."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Not an enemy," Thor said. "Whether you should be nervous or not is up to you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm getting the idea I should worry a little," Natasha said. "Anyway. If she's a friend, you should come out and say hello."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Have Banner say hello to her," Thor said. "She's his friend, too."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha didn't even blink. "You can come out and say hi to her yourself, like friends do, or I can let her back here so she can see for herself how you're doing. It's up to you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor tried to imagine which of those was less appealing. On the one hand, there was having a drunk Valkyrie yell at him because he was able to be upright and thus should be able to walk off anything else. On the other, there was having a drunk Valkyrie stumble into his room, see him like this, and double down on the drinking.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>With what felt like monumental effort, Thor sat up and put his feet on the floor.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha smiled again. "Good job."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rolled his eyes. "Don't patronize me."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha put her hands up in surrender. But she was still smiling.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor made his way down to the palace entryway and sure enough, there was Valkyrie in her usual state- that was, just slightly too drunk to stand.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Here you go," Natasha said. "He's all yours."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thanks," Valkyrie said, giving her a lascivious smile that brought home to Thor all at once that he had never seen Valkyrie interact with an attractive woman before.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Natasha looked amused. "Have fun," she said, whether to him or Valkyrie, Thor wasn't sure.<br/>
As she walked away, Valkyrie watched her go- and tried, probably not as discreetly as she thought she was being, to look at her ass.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Hey," Thor said. "I saw that."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Saw what?" she asked, affecting an air of innocence that probably would have played better if she didn't have a gun the size of her leg hanging at her side- and a bottle just as big in her other hand.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I thought you were still in mourning," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," Valkyrie said, "I'm still in drinking. There's a difference." As if to emphasize her point, she took a drink. "And even if I was, I would be in mourning, not dead. Which I'm glad to see is also the case for you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Right, I'm fine," he said. "Here I am, just- fine. Will that make an end of my interrogation so I may return my rooms?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She looked offended. "Thank you, Valkyrie," she said, mocking, "for coming all the way across five or six galaxies to check the status of my royal, sorry ass--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"All right," Thor said. "Perhaps I could have been a bit more congenial."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie wasn't done. "-- and for getting all the remaining people of Asgard to safety from Thanos while I, like a noble moron, stayed behind to die--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes, thanks, I am very grateful--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She pitched her voice over his. "-- and for getting them all safely put on a planet where they can get started rebuilding their shattered lives, even though that is very much my responsibility, not yours."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"All right!" Thor ran his hands back through his hair. He could almost feel that stab of shame like a physical blow. "You're right. You've done quite a lot for me and for Asgard of late and I haven't properly appreciated you for any of it. I'm both rude and a fool. I'm sorry."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She nodded. "Thank you," she said. "Now, where were we, my lady- oh, piss it, she's gone."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Would you like--" Thor looked at her and reconsidered. "--anything other than a drink?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie scoffed. "Why would I ever want anything but a drink?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave her a look.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "A seat and some little pretzels would be just as well, I suppose."<br/>
Thor led her to the nearest area for entertaining guests he could think of. There weren't any pretzels to give her, but there was a seat.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>They both settled down across from each other. Valkyrie offered him the neck of her bottle. Thor waved it away.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Have you come to take me back to the throne?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why bother?" Valkyrie said. "I'm not the one babysitting them now. If you don't want them, it's not my problem."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor raised his eyebrows. "You flew across five or six galaxies to tell me that the ruling of Asgard isn't your problem?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie glared at the bottle, as though it was deliberately sabotaging her. "Well, it's not," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No, I wouldn't say so," Thor said. "Though one might have thought that going to the nearest pleasure planet to drink yourself sick and pass out on the breasts of some blonde woman would have got the message across just as well."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You wouldn't have known I was doing it," Valkyrie said, "which takes some of the fun out of the whole 'I quit' thing." She leaned forward to give him a gloating smile. "And there are blonde women with comfortable breasts right here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor let out the feeble sort of laugh that always sounded to him like someone was exhaling unusually loud. "Fair enough. So, you quit?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I do," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you for coming all this way to tell me in person, I suppose," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie shrugged. "Seemed like what you'd think of as decent."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It doesn't matter to me now," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Doesn't look like much does," Valkyrie said. "You look horrible, you know that?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"So I've heard," he said. "I don't think anyone looks <i>good</i> after spending nine days in a tree."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie raised her eyebrows. "You sought an audience with Odin in Valhalla."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I did." Thor gave a considering look at Valkyrie's bottle, wondering if perhaps he wanted some after all.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She either didn't notice or decided she didn't want to share, because she chose that moment to take a very large swig. "What did the old goat have to say?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave a weak laugh, a little more genuine this time. "Did you call him that when he was your king?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh, who can remember?" Valkyrie said. "We've all got old since then. C'mon, what did he say?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor sat silently for a moment. He hadn't tried saying this since he had told Nebula in the lab. He had been avoiding saying anything that might make it more real. "Loki's gone," he said. "Somewhere for victims of Thanos. I won't see him in Valhalla when it's my turn to go. He won't be there."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He had hoped it would sound less sad when he said it in a factual way like that. It didn't.<br/>
At least Valkyrie, like Nebula, didn't seem to feel so sorry for him that it hurt to look at. "So he did get killed after we evacuated," she said. "That's a shame."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor blinked. "I thought you hated him."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She gave a one-shouldered shrug. "We weren't friends, but we weren't real enemies. And in a way, I owe him."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"How's that?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Dunno if you noticed, Your Majesty, but it wasn't your nobility that inspired me to put back on the armor and go to fight for Asgard again," Valkyrie said. "It was actually him torturing me with the deaths of Sigi and our sisters."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He winced. "Did he do that?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"He did," she said. She looked at her tattoo on her arm. "He saw it and he dug up the memory and made me watch. 'Swhy I tied him up."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That- sounds like Loki, yes."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It's good," Valkyrie said. "It was a bigger and better push than appealing to my loyalty, anyway."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"But it did appeal to your loyalty," Thor said. "It made you remember the other Valkyries and fight for their honor."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Actually, it really just made me want to get the bitch that killed them," Valkyrie said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh," Thor said. He hesitated, then asked, "How long did it take you just to stop dreaming that you saved her? That she was still alive and you hadn't ruined it all and lost everything?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I still dream of that sometimes," Valkyrie said. "Sigi just sits next to me in a bar and she's fine, she's been fine all the time, and is furious at me for not looking for her sooner."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. "I keep dreaming that Loki appears with ice in his hair, so angry he's frothing and spitting because I just left him there in space and he had to painstakingly dog paddle across the cosmos to find me."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Dog paddle?" Valkyrie asked, curious.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Loki doesn't really swim," Thor said. "Probably because Fandral and I shoved him under a few times."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ah." She looked unimpressed. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"He did turn me into a frog that day," he said, defensive.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ugh." Valkyrie made a face. "Frogs."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thank you," Thor said. "I tried to explain the indignity of being a frog to my new friend Nebula, she didn't get it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh, a new friend?" Valkyrie asked. "You mean you actually did something down here?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I did make a friend," Thor said. He sighed. "I should probably talk to her. I haven't since I came back from seeing the Allfather."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The former Allfather," Valkyrie reminded him. "It's you now, remember." She reached over and lightly scratched at the skin by his prosthetic eye. "You even look the part now."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor touched his eye. "Sort of," he said. "I miss the eye patch. Not as much as I like having my depth perception back, but I did think I looked good in it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Very good," Valkyrie agreed. "Maybe you can wear it for formal occasions of state when you start ruling."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor let out the smallest of laughs. "Maybe."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie hesitated, then looked at him seriously. "You will, won't you?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Wear the eye patch on formal occasions?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Start ruling," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor smiled a little. "You do care after all."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You infected me with it like a disease," she said. "And not even transmitted the fun way."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor huffed a laugh again, but then sobered. "Yes," he said. "I'll start ruling in time. When I feel a bit more alive and less useless." Which may be never, he thought but didn't say. He had the feeling Valkyrie wouldn't be any more impressed with his self-pity.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Somewhere outside the room, in the hallway, he heard a crash.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What was that?" Valkyrie asked. She must not have been as drunk as Thor thought. She was able to pick up her gun from hanging at ease on her hip and have it ready to fire in less than a second. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He wondered how useful it actually would be if he told her to stay here. Probably not at all. He gestured for silence and then headed for the hall.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>On the hall floor, Nebula lay on her back, sprawled and cursing under her breath like she had just fallen off of something. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor blinked. "What are you doing out here?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nothing," she said in a manner very much like someone who was doing something. Then she seemed to realize how guilty it made her look and added, "I heard my name."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor frowned at her. "Are you all right?" While it wasn't impossible that she looked like that because she had been eavesdropping, Thor had never known Nebula to care about that kind of social nicety.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I was looking for you," she said, "and you were busy with your friend."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>That looked even less true than the last, but Thor couldn't really think of a way to say that without insulting her.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie peered around him. "Is this the terrible danger?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked at Nebula for a moment, waiting to see if she would present a better explanation for how she had ended up on the floor on her back, or for that matter why she seemed to have gripping hook attachments sticking out of her palms. She didn't, so Thor was forced to proceed as though things were normal. "Valkyrie, meet Nebula. Nebula, Valkyrie."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie looked at her just as lustfully as she had Natasha. "So this is new friend Nebula," she said. "Nice to meet you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"And you," Nebula said, sounding not at all like she thought that.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Would you like to join Thor and me for a drink?" Valkyrie asked. "Mostly me. Only me, actually. We can kick Thor out."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor held his breath. He had never seen Nebula react to flirtation before. He had never seen anyone <i>try</i> to flirt with Nebula before. He had no idea if she would like it, hate it, feel threatened by it, leap straight away into Valkyrie's lap demanding sexual favors, or miss it entirely.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe another time," Nebula said, going for her favorite "none of the above" option. She looked at Thor. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight." She started off down the hallway.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nebula?" Thor called after her.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She whirled around, looking tense.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"That's Shuri's lab," he said. "Your room is that way."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"My mistake," Nebula said. She turned around and headed for the correct set of stairs. Thor stepped around the hall to watch to make sure she went all the way up. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe she likes you," Valkyrie said, sounding put out.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Maybe," Thor said. But he didn't think so. "She's up to something."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Cheers to her, then," Valkyrie said. "I hope it puts her in my room."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Mm," Thor grunted, noncommittal. "Do you have rooms yet?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No one's offered me one."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'll see what I can do."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"If you can," Valkyrie said, "put me near the blonde."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"If I can, I'm putting you far away from any wine or women," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll find them anyway."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You would," Thor said with a sigh. "Please don't get our entire species exiled from Midgard."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I have never got exiled from anywhere in my life."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Don't pick now to start."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie rolled her eyes while theatrically crossing her heart with one finger.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor glared.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh fine," said Valkyrie. "I'll take it as an order from my king. Happy?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," he said. "But, closer. Thanks for being here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She shrugged. "Thanks for not being dead."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He nodded. "Goodnight."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"G'night."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>As he looked for T'Challa to arrange a room, he wondered which would be more burdensome on his hosts: asking for an alcohol purge of the palace, or asking for someone to follow Nebula to see what she was doing.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>How, he wondered, do I so often fall into friendships with people who need to be watched?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i> ___</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>One of the nice things about Wakanda, compared to most of Midgard that Thor had been to, was that it was actually dark at night. There were reasons for it, he knew- Shuri had talked to him about the environment and protecting wildlife and even given him a book about it before she had realized he wasn't that interested. But the important thing was that even the palace had most of their lights off or dimmed once people had gone to bed. It was very easy for someone to sneak around in, if they had a mind to.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He was sitting in the dark outside Shuri's locked-up laboratory, waiting to see if Nebula had a mind to.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He really hoped not, because he had no plan at all for what to do next if she showed up. Or how long he should even wait to see if she did. Or how many times he would have to come back and do this before he would be satisfied that she wasn't, if she did but tonight wasn't the night she was planning.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Truly a master strategist at work,</i> he imagined Loki saying.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>
          <i>You once threw yourself off the Bifrost in a dramatic snit with no thought whatsoever of where you would land and found yourself being tortured for the next year by Thanos.</i>
        </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Ha. So there.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor slumped in his chair so he could tip it back to the wall. Actually, he had to admit that Imaginary Loki had a point. He never had been equipped to cope with the reconnaissance portion of any plan. He got bored too fast. Last time it had happened, he'd ended up storming out and picking a fight before he went stir crazy.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>It was another item he could add to the list of things he didn't do well without Loki- the real Loki. Not that Loki had ever been good at restraining Thor from picking fights, but he did have a singular talent for picking them with Thor himself so that they spent the entire time bickering in whispers instead of engaging the enemy.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>No,</i> he told himself. <i>This is not the time for getting into a sulk thinking about Loki. I am here in case Nebula is planning something and not just uncomfortable being hit on by drunken Asgardian women.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He glared at the wall across from him just in case Nebula was somehow blending into it to sneak past him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She wasn't- or if she was, it was so well that he couldn't see her and probably never would. He'd fall asleep before she so much as twitched a visible muscle.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Reconnaissance is the most boring thing in the <b>world,</b></i> he thought, rubbing the bridge of his nose against a burgeoning headache.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The sound of a pair of boots on marble broke the silence.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He perked up, turning in the direction of the sound, waiting to see.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>A Dora Milaje. Damn.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor flattened himself against the wall to avoid being seen. Not because he was out of bounds- as far as he knew, there were no particular areas he was forbidden from going in, and anywhere that had a curfew on it enforced that curfew with a locked door. But he didn't feel like explaining himself to anyone if he were seen. <i>I'm lurking in the dark outside the princess' laboratory because I have a gut suspicion that my friend Nebula is going to break into it. Possibly. She might be doing something else, actually, but I started here because it's where you keep most of the things worth stealing.</i> No. Someone was bound to tell Tony and Tony would probably tear half his hair out.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor held his breath, waiting for her to pass.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>There was a brief silence, then the Dora Milaje said something in their language into her communication device before she turned away and left.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He exhaled. He looked around, waiting for another set of footfalls, but he couldn't hear anything. He guessed that he had either misjudged Nebula's intentions, or else her target. He turned and started to leave. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Behind him, there was the tiniest tap on the ground. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He turned around and sure enough, there was Nebula, having dropped down from the ceiling.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nebula!" He hissed under his breath.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thor," she said. If she felt she was in trouble, he couldn't tell. She looked her usual mix of flat with a slice of annoyed.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to be quiet enough not to draw any undue attention, while also being loud enough that she understood that he was annoyed. It was a tough line to walk.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>To her credit, Nebula did not try to feign innocence. "I was waiting for you to leave."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"But why?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It would have been harder to break in with you still sitting there." She said it as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You could have talked to me," Thor said. "I- have an in with the princess."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked at him, baffled. "So?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor sputtered. "So- you- well- you could have told me and I could have asked her. She probably wouldn't mind giving you something you liked."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"She would have minded this," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What is it?" he asked. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She gave him a mistrustful look that he thought was rather rich coming from the would-be thief to the would-be thief stopper. "It doesn't matter."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"If it matters enough to you to steal it, then it matters," Thor said. He felt a pang in his heart and an unwilling surge of feeling for Loki.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>Where was that unconditional support for my kleptomaniacal proclivities?</i>, Thor imagined him saying.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked at him with a touch more scrutiny, as though she were judging him for more than the usual amount of trustworthiness. It occurred to him for the first time that he actually knew very little about Nebula when it came to anything that wasn't related to Gamora. He had no idea how much or little she had trusted him before.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I won't turn you in," Thor offered.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Her gaze became the slightest bit more piercing for a moment- then relaxed. Whatever else she was thinking, she seemed to believe that. "I'm looking for the stones," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor groaned. She would of course have to want the one thing in the lab that couldn't be had for the asking with a slate of upgrades before letting someone take it out into the world. "Why?" he asked. "You didn't agree with Thanos about anything else, what makes the stones so attractive to you now?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula swallowed. Thor could actually see her throat contract and relax with the effort. "I want the soul stone," she said. "I want to take it back to its guardian on Vormir to trade for Gamora's body, so that I can bring her home for a funeral."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor's stomach felt like it had turned to lead. "Oh."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I didn't think they would let me take it for such a purpose," Nebula said. "That they would want to continue whatever methods of study on it they've been employing, and by comparison my request would seem frivolous."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor winced. Tony, Steve, and T'Challa would all have been very sorry not to let her have it, and he could easily picture all of them saying no. No, the stone is too important to just give away to anybody, even a friend with a real need. No, we need to understand it before we let it go anywhere. No, we can't grant such a request.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked. "I would have helped you somehow."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why?" she asked. "You aren't staying anyway. You're going back to wherever the valkyrie left your people, to retake your place as their king."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He stared. "Is that what you're upset about?" he asked. "You thought I was leaving you?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked away.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor grasped her shoulders, firm but gentle. "You have been my closest friend while I mourned my brother," he said. "I would not just leave you behind like--" He struggled for an analogy. "--like a broken spear you forget on the battlefield." </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Are you calling me broken?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm not good at metaphors," he said. "The point is that you're my friend and I would never just leave you behind. And if you wanted my help to get the soul stone, no matter the purpose, I would have done something."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She looked skeptical. "You would steal the soul stone from your friends so that I could trade it for my sister's body?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Is there really a doubt in your mind that I would?" he asked. "I was going to tie myself to a tree for nine days for you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You still did it for you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes, well, I like me, too," he said. "Do you want my help or don't you?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula cast a look in the direction of the lab. It was the most secure location in Wakanda, if not the most secure location on Earth, and he thought he could actually see her realizing that. "Is there something you have in mind?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You mean like a plan?" Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes," Nebula said. "Like a plan."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No," he admitted. He beamed at her hopefully. "But I know someone who probably does."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula gave him a considering look. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>As he finished explaining the dilemma to her, Shuri stared at him as though he had sprouted another head. "You want to ask me for my help on how to break in to my own lab?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thur gave her his most winning smile- which must have been working, because she didn't cringe away from him like she usually did. "You seem like just the sort of person to ask."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What," she asked, "the sort of person who steals?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"The sort of person who has thought about what would happen if she became locked out of her lab accidentally and needed to get back in very quickly," Thor said. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri gave him a skeptical look.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Or the sort of person who is interested in beating herself at her own game," Thor admitted, which was what he had been thinking in the first place.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"That does sound like you," Peter said, the first words he had spoken since Thor and Nebula came in and asked Shuri how to stage a break-in on the most important tech center in Wakanda. Thor wasn't sure if he was supporting this or not, and hoped the answer was yes so he wouldn't have to tie him up in a closet somewhere to prevent him from going to Tony.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri snorted. "Beating my security isn't the problem," she said. "I can just let you in any time I want. The problem is the security on the infinity stones, and I can't break that for you."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor blinked. "You can't?" He could feel his entire face twitching into puzzlement. "But- you're the top technological developer in the country, it's your lab--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes, that is what I said," Shuri said, looking annoyed at the memory. "But everyone was so upset after Thanos that voting what to do with the stones took days. Half the tribes did not even want to keep the stones on Earth and said we should shoot them into space." For a moment, she looked dreamy and distracted. "Which I drew up a lot of plans for...." She shook herself back to normal. "In the end, they decided to study them here but only T'Challa and Tony Stark get to look at them. I just have to let them into my space and pretend they are not being stupid by keeping me away."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula didn't seem perturbed by this. "You can beat their security," she said. "I've seen it. You're smarter."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri looked flattered. Then she shook that off in favor of sternness. "But why should I?" she asked. "You're just going to take into space and lose it forever."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Dude," Peter said, giving her an incredulous look. "It's to get her dead sister back."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Her dead sister's body back," Shuri said. "You don't need a body to have a funeral. We could throw a big funeral right here."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor wondered for a moment what kind of funeral traditions the Wakandans had if a body wasn't necessary. He couldn't imagine proper rites without a body to send off. But then, he had never seen a Midgardian funeral to begin with, so maybe there was something to this idea. He pushed the thought away. "Your Highness," he said. "Please. Do you not remember when you lost your brother to the dust?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri gave him a hurt look, as though she couldn't believe that he would bring that up. But she didn't flinch or hesitate to answer. "Yes," she said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You gave him no funeral then," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Because he wasn't gone forever," Shuri said, stubborn. "I knew we would get him back."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave her a hurt look of his own. "Nebula and I won't be getting our brother and sister back," he said. "In this world or the next. Getting her sister's body back from Vormir is a way for her to see her one last time before she lets go." He could see Shuri wavering. He reached for her hand. "Please, princess. It- hurts more than we can live with. There's nothing else I can give her to help."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri groaned. "Fine," she said. "I will help you steal an infinity stone." </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We both will," Peter said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri gave him a look. "What are you going to do," she asked, "make jokes and throw people?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I can get Mr. Stark to come down to the lab so we can steal his pass," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Any of us could do that," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Peter gave him a skeptical look. "What would you say?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor had never done well with being put on the spot. His mind instantly went blank. "Well," he said, "I--" Still blank? Shit. "I would ask him to come look at this very cool bug." He received an incredulous glare in triplicate. "All right, fine, we could use a little of your help."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I can web it off him," Peter said. "Then nobody has to punch anybody."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Why wouldn't we want to punch anybody?" Nebula asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No, the boy's right," Thor said. "We want to be welcome here again after this mission. It's better if we don't hurt anyone."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"If we want to be welcome here after this mission, it's better if we don't steal," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes, that is also true, but we have to do one of those things, and we don't have to do the other, so- let's- not... punch my friends," Thor said, letting the sentence dribble into awkwardness by the end.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. "Fine."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Is that really the whole plan?" Shuri asked, dubious. "I let you two into the lab, he brings down Tony Stark, webs the pass away, then you take the infinity stone and run?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You don't think it will work?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"No, I think it will work, I just thought there would be something with grappling hooks," Shuri said, looking disappointed. "Or maybe night vision goggles. I make really good night vision goggles."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor smiled and squeezed her shoulder. "Next time, my friend."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What are you gonna do if people chase you?" Peter asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I thought you would take care of that with your webs," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Well, yeah, some of it," Peter said. "But when the doors lock and we're still in the lab and you're running away, what are you gonna do next?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked at Thor as if she were wondering that, too.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor gave her his most sincere, heartfelt, please-trust-me look. "We'll wing it."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Wing it," Nebula repeated, and he couldn't tell if the problem was that she had never heard the term before, or just that she knew what it meant and thought it sounded stupid.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Considering how good she was at figuring out what most people meant from context alone, it was probably both.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Will you trust me?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I guess," she said, looking as though she already regretted it. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ooh," Peter said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What?" Shuri perked up, hopeful.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We could do the thing," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri looked like she could have kissed him. "The thing!" She rubbed her hands together.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What is the thing?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Peter waved it away. "We probably shouldn't talk too much about it in case any of us are captured."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Who do you anticipate is going to capture us?" Thor asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Don't fight him," Shuri said. "Just leave it to us. It is a good plan. Tomorrow?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked at Nebula, questioning. Was that soon enough? Or did she really need to be on her way to get Gamora right now?</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula looked away. "Tomorrow's fine."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>There was a beat. No one seemed to know what to say.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"All right," Thor said. "Tomorrow, then." He got up and opened the door so they could all begin dispersing in their separate ways, Peter and Shuri heading off together who knew where.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Peter was smiling as he walked away. "This is gonna be so cool."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Down the hall, Shuri elbowed him. "Be <i>subtle.</i>"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I <i>am</i> being subtle," he said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"This is subtle?" Shuri asked, despairing. They turned a corner and edged just out of the range that Thor could hear.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He looked to Nebula. "Do you think I'm going to regret asking them for help?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes," Nebula said. "Swiftly."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>---</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The next day felt abnormally normal and very, very slow. Thor got out of bed early enough for the first time in days to eat breakfast with the other Avengers and everyone acted both very excited and like they were trying not to seem too invested so as not to embarrass him. It may have been the most awkward meal Thor had ever had.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He tried to think of a way to excuse himself to Shuri's lab, but discovered very quickly that it was just like trying to think of bait to lure Tony down there. He couldn't think of a reason that didn't sound made up or stupid. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri must have thought of that, because around noon, someone he didn't recognize came to him and said, "Her Highness Princess Shuri has requested your presence."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor was impressed that it could be that easy, but then he realized the messenger actually looked concerned. "Is something wrong?" he asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Your blue friend is with her being worked on," the messenger said. "It looked- well. They've asked for you, anyway. We should go quickly."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt bowled over with the desire to laugh out loud. Get Help. Nebula and Shuri were doing Get Help. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He kept his face as straight as he could and headed down to the lab in a rush. Sure enough, Nebula was on the table where Thor had been just a few days ago, her torso opened up to show just how much more of it than he thought was robotics. Shuri was elbow deep in them and for a second he wanted to panic- maybe this wasn't part of the plan- but then he saw that Shuri wasn't connecting or disconnecting anything, just going over the same six or seven spots with a sensor over and over again and rushing over to her computer to check the data.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He ran to their side and picked up Nebula's hand, squeezing it. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Thor," Nebula said, and by the look Shuri gave her, she had probably been told to act more sincere.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Does it hurt very badly, my friend?" he asked, giving her his most soulful look. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Inside Nebula's torso, Shuri gave him a thumbs up.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Very," Nebula said, deadpan and unconvincing. "It's torture."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I don't think I can do this by myself," Shuri said, giving him a theatrically helpless look. "Peter has gone for Stark and we will do our best."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked at the nearest techs and assistants. "Did you not hear her? My friend may be dying! Find Tony Stark!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>They scattered.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri gave him a look. "I had that under control."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I wanted a smaller audience," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Right on cue, Stark and Peter burst in. "I found him!" Peter yelled. "Help's coming!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Tony, thank Bast you are here!" Shuri cried- laying it on a little thick for Thor's money, but Tony didn't know Shuri very well and didn't seem to notice.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony had a determined look so patently heroic that Thor felt a little bad they were lying to him. "Okay, what have we got?" he asked. He was already putting on gloves that he seemed to have conjured out of thin air- at least, Thor had no idea where he had gotten them.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Cyborg with multiple systems failure," Shuri said. "There are bad sectors in the controllers implanted in her liver, her kidneys, and the energy generator replacing her pancreas."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You've really been through some shit, haven't you, girl?" Tony asked, looking at Nebula. "Does it hurt?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula gave Tony the same deadpan look she had been giving everyone. "Unbearably."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony seemed to miss Nebula's sarcasm, instead looking to Shuri to ask, "Numbed her already?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri shot Nebula a brief look to let her know she was not playing her part correctly, then looked at Tony. "Yes, I had to, she was screaming her head off before that."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Good work," he said. "Let's see what's under the hood."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He got as far as moving to Shuri's side where he could see before a string of web shot to a necklace Tony was wearing that, Thor noticed for the first time, was very like a bracelet Shuri always wore. The necklace shot over Tony's head and whipped across the room into Peter's hand.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony forgot about Nebula to look over at Peter. "What the--?" </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula sprang off the table, her torso closing itself back up as she leaped.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Don't miss!" Peter yelled, tossing her the beads.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She didn't. Nebula caught them in the air seconds before Thor caught <i>her</i> in the air to prevent a crash to the floor. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony was sputtering with disbelief. "Are you <i>stealing</i> my magic science necklace?!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Sorry, friend," Thor said. "We're borrowing- just borrowing!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Over there!" Shuri pointed. "It is in containment!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula leaped up, grabbed something on the ceiling to swing off of, and flipped over most of the lab to land where Shuri had pointed.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony stared at her, nanites starting to trickle from the reactor on his chest to put him in the Iron Man suit.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Shuri, do the thing!" Peter shouted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>With unmistakable glee, Shuri slammed a button on her console.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor felt the air burn up with cosmic energy while the room seemed to break out in hives. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>No, not hives. Holes. And Tony Stark was sticking partway out of <i>all of them.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony noticed it a second later than Thor did. "What the <i>fuck?</i>"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked to Shuri in horror. "What did you do?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Our portals," she said. "He's inside one of them with a few too many doors." She beamed at him. "Genius, right?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked again to make sure that Tony wasn't hurt. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Oh my God," Tony said, staring, "why is my arm all the way over there?!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony's fingers were wiggling out of a wall over a hundred feet away from him. But there was no blood and Tony probably wouldn't be asking questions about the locations of his limbs if he were in pain, so he probably wasn't hurt.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Actually, it is," Thor said. Then he looked to Shuri again. "You can get him back out of there, can't you?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri waved it away. "Pffft. Two days. Less, even."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Then yes, genius," Thor said, patting Shuri's shoulder. "Nebula?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula was rapidly plugging each bead in individually, trying to find the one that would act like a key. Soon there was a blue light and a box unfolded, holding an anti-gravity field the stones were floating in. Nebula plucked the soul stone from the group, then shoved the box back into containment. "I have it." She bounced it from one hand to another, as though holding it were difficult.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor grabbed the nearest box- by the stains, it had once had food in it- and let her drop the stone in there, folding up the top. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony's horror gave way to fury. "Don't you dare!" he shouted. "Do not steal an infinity stone!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I'm sorry, my friend," Thor said. "But her need was greater than yours." He looked to Nebula. "Let's go." They began to run for the door.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Tony was still shouting after him. "That thing is evil, it's dangerous, and we're not done with it yet! Thor, get back here!" One of his feet, sticking out of the ceiling, tried to make running motions. "Parker, Princess- when I get out of here, you're grounded <i>forever!</i>"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri ran to Thor's side. "Wait, wait!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked to her. He could feel his face twitching with the desire to get away. "What?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri pulled a necklace out from under her shirt and over her head, pressing it into his hand. He wasn't familiar with the symbol- some sort of cat- but it felt warm and in a strange way, reassuring. "Take this," she said. "For luck on your journey."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor nodded. "Thank you, my friend."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Shuri gestured for the door. "That way. Now! Run!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor and Nebula ran as fast as they could. There were no alarms yet, but someone was going to notice Tony's ear was in the kitchen at some point and they were done for if they weren't gone by then.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Where can we find a ship?" Nebula asked as they reached the outside of the palace.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor skidded to a stop. "What?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We need a ship to get from here to Vormir," she said. "Where do they keep their ships?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor cringed. "Well--"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You don't know?!" Nebula shouted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>If she's angry now,</i> Loki would say, <i>just think how she's going to feel when she finds out they haven't even figured out long-distance spaceflight yet.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor looked around, trying to find something, anything, that could be his salvation. Then he saw it and pointed. "We'll take Valkyrie's." He ran in that direction, Nebula hurrying to catch up.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>How is it that everything works out for you?</i>, Loki would've said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Yes, well, let's see if we can actually fly it before we declare that," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"What?" Nebula shouted, looking at him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Nothing," he shouted back, "just keep running!"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Behind them, security teams were beginning to deploy, some chasing after them, others disappearing to get a pursuit vehicle. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor swore under his breath. What he wouldn't give just now to have Mjolnir to fly with again. Stormbreaker was a fine ax, but there was no replacing a multipurpose weapon that covered you just as well for flight as fight. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They'll gain on us," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"They haven't yet," said Thor.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie's ship loomed large in the middle distance. They only had to make it so much farther. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>The Wakandan security team had mounted hoverbikes and were beginning to gain speed. Thor wondered if lightning would do any good to slow them, when there were so many and all moving targets. </i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>He didn't really want to find out.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"We need to hurry it up," Thor said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Nebula gave him a hateful look. "I can't outrun a hoverbike."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Allow me to assist," Thor said. He picked her up and threw her at the ship.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She flew through the air and crashed against it hard enough that Thor heard the sound. He winced.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Sorry," he said. He would have a better apology later when she could actually hear him. For the moment, he focused on running as fast as he could to the ship. It truly was just shy of impossible to outrun hoverbikes.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>When he finally reached the ship, Nebula was waiting for him- but so was Valkyrie.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"Ah," he said. It was the only word that seemed to want to come out when he was trapped between the urgency of trying to escape the people chasing him and the awkwardness of being caught by Valkyrie about to steal her ship.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie folded her arms across her chest. "I guess you found out what she was up to."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"A bit," he admitted.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>She looked at him for a long moment. "You realize you just helped the daughter of Thanos steal an infinity stone?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"It isn't like that," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie raised a skeptical eyebrow. "I believe he believes that."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"I don't have time to convince you." Thor looked back at the hoverbikes that would be there in about two seconds. "We're, er, a bit occupied at the moment."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Valkyrie looked at him, then sighed. "I hope you know what you're doing," she said. "Take it. I'll- deal with that--" She indicated the approaching Wakandans with a nod of her head. "--somehow."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor touched her shoulder. "You are a true friend."</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You're a lousy king," she said. "Go." She rolled her neck to crack it and ran towards the hoverbikes.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor opened the ship and ran inside, Nebula close behind him.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"She's really letting us go?" she asked.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"'Course she is," Thor said. "That's what friends do." He grinned at her. "Had you not noticed?"</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>"You're not a normal kind of friend," Nebula said.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i>Thor didn't know whether to be flattered or insulted. "Yeah, well, neither are you," he said, launching up, up- and off into the unknown. For Vormir, for Gamora- for wherever else this journey would take them.</i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i>
      <i>
        <i><i>This had better be worth all the trouble,</i> Thor thought, <i>or I'm going to be very annoyed.</i></i>
      </i>
    </i>
  </i>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The journey to Vormir was a long one, tense and quiet, with very few words passing between Thor and Nebula. Most of those words were things like "We should be there in three more hours" and "Adjust your course before we hit that asteroid."</p><p>It was hard for Thor to think of much to say. Their purpose was one of the more depressing reasons he had ever gone on a journey and there was no comfort he could offer for going to retrieve the corpse of a dead loved one. Most of how Thor had learned to comfort Nebula up to this point had been an escalating- and, in hindsight, very morbid- game of how gruesomely they would allow themselves to be tortured for their siblings' lives. Something about that seemed inappropriate and upsetting for a situation where Nebula was so directly confronting the finality of Gamora's death.</p><p>The only comparable experience he'd had to this was preparing his mother's body for her funeral, and even that had mostly been the duty of her servants. Thor had just fixated on finding her favorite pieces of jewelry to send with her. Then he'd thrown himself into breaking Loki out of prison to save Jane from the Aether. He hadn't really done anything that could be properly classified as "dealing with it." What insight could he possibly offer her?</p><p>Worse, Nebula was inscrutable at the best of times and seemed to be drawn more into herself now than she had been since he had met her. He couldn't tell if she would have <i>wanted</i> any kind of insight or comfort if he had even had any to provide.</p><p>This was probably how the Avengers felt about me back in Wakanda, he thought- which was a painful thought and even worse when he realized it had been going on for weeks, not a mere uncomfortable few hours in a spaceship. When he got back, he would trip over himself to offer them sympathy and forgiveness over how untenable that position must have felt. </p><p>And they had tried, he thought. I'm not really doing anything that can be called trying.</p><p>Thor took a breath. "Nebula," he said.</p><p>"We're here," she said.</p><p>Damn, he thought. Oh well. He looked out the viewport to see.</p><p>Vormir wasn't much of a planet. In fact, if Thor had been the one piloting, he might have flown past it. The planet that had once been home to one of the most fabulous treasures in the universe was barren and rocky, devoid of life. No cities had been built around the stone, no labyrinths to hunt it in, no armies to defend it. Thor couldn't even see some remote Nova Corps outpost where they might've had it in a lockbox.</p><p>"Are you sure?" he asked, unable to keep the skepticism out of his voice.</p><p>"You were expecting more?" </p><p>"Maybe a little."</p><p>"Not all stonekeepers are like your father and put a whole treasure room around it," Nebula said, guiding the ship in for a landing.</p><p>"Hey," Thor said. "I will have you know that the treasure room predated our capturing of the Tesseract by many, many centuries."</p><p>"I see," Nebula said. She sounded like she meant, <i>I don't care,</i> so Thor dropped the argument.</p><p>Nebula opened the ship's bay doors and extended a ramp for them to disembark on. Thor looked, dubious, out the windows at the dark, arid landscape again. "You're sure there's air?"</p><p>"No," she said. Then she walked out of the ship onto the terrain anyway. Thor followed after her.</p><p>There <i>was</i> air, and even a little water- though from what, Thor couldn't imagine; there were no obvious creators of oxygen anywhere in sight. There also weren't any landmarks that indicated where they should be going to find the Guardian of the Soul Stone.</p><p>"Where to?" he asked.</p><p>Nebula pointed at the ground. In the sand between the rocks, he could make out two sets of footprints: one smaller and thinner, with the slightly deeper depression of a sharpened heel, the other enormous with the flat sole and light treads of a huge but well-made pair of boots.</p><p>"Thanos and Gamora," Thor said.</p><p>Nebula nodded.</p><p>They began following the trail up into the rocks, losing it a few times as the path began to have more rocks and less sand. How Nebula knew where to keep going then, Thor didn't know, but she was managing somehow.</p><p>They rounded a corner and reached the foundation of a mountain. Dead vines clung to its sides all the way up, burned trees hung over the edges at the top, and he could make out the ruins of what may have once been a temple.</p><p>Oh, Thor realized. There <i>did</i> used to be life here. The soul stone had merely taken it all when it called this place its home.</p><p>He bit his lip. "Nebula," he said, "are you sure this is safe? That it's something you want to do? Princess Shuri was right that funerals require no bodies, you don't have to get it."</p><p>Nebula looked at him as though he had suggested she eat a slug. "I am not leaving here without my sister."</p><p>They began the climb up.</p><p>The cliff face was so steep that talking on the way up was impossible- it required too much focus not to lose their footing. He didn't know what there was to say now, anyway, not any more than he had earlier. Nebula needed to see Gamora one last time, touch her face, give her the rituals and respect she deserved. Thor couldn't bring himself to try and talk her out of that. He wondered if maybe, once they retrieved Gamora, they should do the same for Loki- though the thought made his stomach hurt.</p><p>At least Loki was probably really well preserved out in the cold, dark nothing of space, he thought. Gamora, left behind on a planet with atmosphere and bacteria on it, probably wasn't in such a pretty state as one might want for a funeral. He hoped that wouldn't haunt Nebula when she saw her. He was suddenly glad that she hadn't included Quill and Groot in her plans for this.</p><p>When they reached the top, it was cold enough that Thor thought at first the flakes drifting towards them were snow. It was only when the papery pieces touched him and dissolved that he realized they were ash. Dead pieces of a dead world. Thor steeled himself for what they might find. For what they had <i>come</i> to find.</p><p>"Nebula, daughter of Thanos," a voice said, low and reverberating strangely in his ear. "And Thor, son of Odin."</p><p>Thor looked around for a moment for the source, then realized that to see it, he needed to look up. Once he saw, he wished he hadn't.</p><p>The voice's owner was some sort of dead, Thor thought, but what sort was hard to say. He hovered and rumbled and wafted like a ghost, but beneath the hood of his cape- the item doing the wafting- was a face bloody and skinless with rot. His nose had gone off and Thor could see right into the bone. If he touched it, he was sure it wouldn't have taken long to find the dead man's brain.</p><p>He shuddered. Were they going to find Gamora like this? Skinless and distant, in some half-alive state?</p><p>The thought either hadn't occurred to Nebula or didn't bother her, because she stepped forward, eyeing the Guardian with a chilly sort of anger, like she was ready to fight him if she had to. "Guardian of the Soul Stone," she said.</p><p>"Yes," said the dead man. "Yes, I think I used to be that."</p><p>Before Nebula could continue, Thor asked, "Why did you stay here once it was gone? Why not go somewhere--" He looked around at the ash flakes drifting in the chill wind. "--a bit warmer?"</p><p>The dead man and Nebula gave him such identical piercing looks of disdain that Thor decided to let it drop.</p><p>"I know what you have come for," the dead man said, looking at Nebula.</p><p>"Then you must know what I have brought to trade for it," she replied.</p><p>The dead man sounded sad. "Yes. Yes, I can feel what you have brought."</p><p>Nebula reached into her pocket and carefully withdrew the cardboard food container Thor had shoved the stone in. Golden light emanated from the top of the box and the stone of its own accord lifted into the air, hovering above the box like the dead man hovered above them.</p><p>"Nebula, daughter of Thanos," the dead man said again. "How very brave you are."</p><p>"Take it," Nebula said, "and give her back to me. Give me my sister, Gamora."</p><p>Thor frowned. Her body, she meant. On Earth, she had <i>said</i>--</p><p>"If our father could trade you her life for this stone," she said, sounding like she might cry, "then I should be able to trade this stone for her life. Give me my sister."</p><p>Thor's jaw dropped.</p><p>The dead man's didn't. "I cannot."</p><p>"Yes, you can," Nebula said, practically snarling. "You have to."</p><p>"I have to do nothing," the dead man said. "The stone walled itself and chose me to give the terms of entry to all who came to find it. <i>I</i> did not take your sister for the stone. <i>I</i> cannot give her back."</p><p>Nebula shook her head. "You lie."</p><p>The dead man gave her a pitying look. "What reason do you imagine, daughter of Thanos, that I would have to lie?"</p><p>Nebula didn't answer, just shook her head again. "No."</p><p>The dead man reached out his hand. The stone floated to it. They did not touch, but blue light filtered down from the clouds to the dead man's hands, and with a crash of thunder, the stone vanished into the sky above them.</p><p>"No!" Nebula screamed, throwing herself down on the ground. <i>"No!"</i> She began beating her fists on the stone, roaring with rage. Thor got down on his knees next to her, putting an arm around her back.</p><p>"Nebula," he said. "It's all right, it's going to be all right, I promise--"</p><p>Nebula let out an incoherent wail and threw his arm off.</p><p>Thor tried to lift her to her feet, but Nebula didn't want up and was able to secure herself to the cliff with metal hooks hidden under her fingernails, so Thor was forced to either leave her on the ground or risk tearing her hands apart. He chose to let her be.</p><p>She stayed on the ground, sobbing.</p><p>There was a soft scratch of boot on sand as the dead man stepped out of the sky. He came over to them and knelt beside Nebula himself, drawing his hood back so it wasn't in the way when he bent his face to her ear. He whispered something Thor couldn't hear, but whatever it was, it made Nebula let out another sob, and a shudder, and then lie still on the ground, just like Thor had done after seeing Odin and Frigga. Whatever the dead man had said had put the final dagger in the heart of Nebula's hopes.</p><p>Thor reached down to try and help her to her feet. She snapped to life, jumping up and shoving him away. </p><p>He watched her, waiting to see what she would do. Wordlessly, she started back the way they came. He stayed by her, but kept a safe distance.</p><p> Together they began the long and very difficult climb back down. Nebula cried the whole way.</p><p>---</p><p>When they got back to the ship, Nebula made one quick burst of energy to get more space between them, then- as though she had run down her batteries- she plodded for the nearest place to sit down. Her hands were leaking a mix of oil and blood from where she had damaged both synthetic and organic tissue. Thor found a dusty basic healing kit and sat across from her to begin cleaning and bandaging her hands. She let him.</p><p>Thor looked at her hands instead of her face. "You lied to me. On Earth. When you said that you only wanted to retrieve Gamora's body."</p><p>"I know. I'm sorry."</p><p>"I forgive you," he said, "but I wish you had told me."</p><p>Nebula hesitated, then admitted, "I thought if I told you I wanted to bring her back from the dead, you would stop me."</p><p>"What, just because it goes against the natural law?" Thor asked. "Pfft. I don't care about that. Nature can sort itself, we've got enough down here to be getting on with."</p><p>Nebula didn't smile, but her face did look a little less droopy with misery. "It felt selfish to rescue only my sister when I had no way to get you your brother."</p><p>"It is," Thor said, shrugging, "but that's all right. You had an obvious idea for how to save Gamora. There's no such obvious path to Loki."</p><p>Nebula nodded. "You're a good friend."</p><p>"Thank you. I'm trying to be."</p><p>Nebula sat in silence for a moment, just watching him work on her hands. "I don't know what to do now. I had the idea to trade the stone for Gamora weeks ago, when you first told me that your friends had it."</p><p>"You've been sitting on that all this time?" Thor asked, unable to hold back a small chuckle. "No wonder you seemed more functional than I was. You still had hope of seeing your sister again in this world." He shook his head with a sigh. "Which explains as well why the news Loki and Gamora were sent to some special Thanos afterlife didn't seem to upset you as much as it did me."</p><p>"I hadn't really believed I would see her in an afterlife before that, anyway," Nebula said. "Thanos didn't raise us with any notion of gods or afterlives. I've never even thought about the chance of a nice one existing before."</p><p>"A nice one?" Thor asked. "Did you think only of terrible hells?"</p><p>"Terrible hells for our father to go to."</p><p>Thor laughed. "He must have disapproved of that."</p><p>"We wished for it anyway," Nebula said. "Dying first was optional."</p><p>He laughed again. The cleaning and bandaging was almost done on her hands, so he turned his attention to finishing them up. "Were you already thinking about trying to find some way to bring her back? Before you knew about the stones."</p><p>"I wasn't really thinking of anything," Nebula said. "I was continuing my existence with mechanical precision. Sleeping the necessary number of hours, eating the necessary number of calories, cleaning myself the necessary amount for optimal lack of aroma." She was silent for a moment, then said, "Before I met you, I hadn't talked to anyone about how I felt about any of it."</p><p>"Before me," Thor said, smiling a little. "Did I look so pathetic that you just felt you had to reach out?"</p><p>"You seemed like you would understand," Nebula said. "With Quill and the others, it felt like I didn't deserve to complain. She was Quill's lover. She was Groot's mother. For Drax and Rocket, she was more than a friend, she was the mother of their weird shared child. My grief was no less painful than theirs, but theirs felt more important." She looked at him. "But you were so shattered over the loss of a brother that you could barely function. We were the same."</p><p>Thor started to reach out to hug her. Nebula made no move to let him, so he pretended to be stretching instead.</p><p>"Well," he said, "we are that. Now, I suppose, we just have to start helping each other pick up the pieces. And moving on."</p><p>Nebula looked miserable at the thought. "I don't want to."</p><p>"Nor do I," Thor said. "But what choice have we got?"</p><p>Nebula sighed, but nodded. "Only Death herself or one of her gods could bring them back for us now."</p><p>Thor blinked. "What?" </p><p>"The skull face," she said. "It's what he whispered to me on the ground."</p><p>Thor stared at her. "What did he say <i>exactly?"</i></p><p>Nebula looked at him as though he were insane, but touched a button hidden somewhere on her skull. From one of her eyes she projected a hologram: the dead man's face, blurry and uncomfortably close to the lens. It was only his eyes and forehead visible in the stream; the rest had been out of frame, whispering in her ear. The audio crackled, but was still unmistakable: <i>"I am sorry, daughter of Thanos, that you came all this way and I cannot do what you want me to do. But only Death herself or one of her gods ever could. My sympathies."</i></p><p>The hologram flickered, then disappeared, Nebula's eye returning to normal.</p><p>Thor stood up. His heart was pounding in his chest so fast that he felt a little like it would burst. Had that solution really been there all the time? How had he never seen it? How had it failed to occur to him?</p><p>"Thor," Nebula said, sounding wary, "are you all right?"</p><p>"I'm fine," Thor said. He was starting to pace. It wouldn't be easy. It might not work.</p><p>But what if it did?</p><p>"Thor," Nebula said again. "What are you doing?"</p><p>"Thinking," he said. He exhaled. Yes. "We have to try."</p><p>"Try what?" Nebula asked.</p><p>Thor looked at her, hopeful for the first time in days. "I think I have an idea."</p><p>Nebula looked, if anything, even more wary about that. "What about picking up the pieces and moving on?" </p><p>Thor waved it away. "Forget that. This idea is much better. Let's go."</p><p>---</p><p>The passage of time had not made the ruins of Asgard any easier to look at. Where once light had gleamed from the golden spires and shimmering Bifrost, there was nothing now but darkness and rocks. There was probably still gold somewhere for someone patient enough to look, assuming that scavenging junkers hadn't already come to pick the bones, but Thor hadn't come here in search of treasure. At least, not treasure in the form of riches, anyway.</p><p>"How do you know she's still alive?" Nebula asked, staring out at the debris.</p><p>"Well. Asgardians can hold their breath for a pretty long time," he offered.</p><p>She gave him a skeptical look.</p><p>"I don't," he said. "But she could be, so we're looking."</p><p>"How do you know she's still here?" </p><p>"Our father banished her to Hel for fifteen hundred years. I don't think she has anywhere else to go."</p><p>Nebula looked unconvinced. "Didn't you say that the last time she saw you, she tore out your eye and tried to kill you?"</p><p>"Yes, well, the last time I saw her, I resurrected a Fire Giant and destroyed the world with her on it, so I think we can call it even," he said.</p><p>Nebula looked reluctant, but the logic did seem to make sense to her. She gave a slow nod. "Do you really think she'll help you?"</p><p>"I don't know," Thor said. "Loki did when he and I were enemies."</p><p>"You shared your life with him," Nebula said. "You met her for a few hours several months ago."</p><p>Thor looked to her, exasperated. "Do you not want to try to get them back?" Thor couldn't pinpoint the moment that this had evolved from getting Nebula's sister back to getting <i>both</i> Loki and Gamora back. But after all, the method of resurrection they were talking about was finding Thor's estranged evil sister and asking her for help. He figured that in those circumstances, you might as well go big or go home. Not to mention that he didn't think his sanity could stand up to watching one more happy and implausible reunion while his brother stayed dead and he kept being all alone.</p><p>"I don't want to be killed by an angry death goddess with a grudge against you," Nebula said.</p><p>"Fair," Thor admitted, "but I don't think she'd try to hurt you. She might not even try to hurt me, who knows?"</p><p>Nebula looked at the debris out the window and then back at him.</p><p>"If anything," Thor said, "that makes my point for me. There's no longer any Asgard for us to fight over. Our father's dead, so he has no expectations that she and I are forced to try to live up- or down- to. What have we got to fight over anymore? ...other than the eye thing and the planet thing, which may I remind you we already established makes us even?"</p><p>Nebula gave him a piercing look. "What do you really think about this?"</p><p>Thor thought about trying to keep up the blustery, positive tone, but it sounded a lot harder when faced with that look. He sighed. "I don't know. She has reasons not to help us. And even if she didn't have them, she still might not anyway, because she never really struck me as a naturally helpful sort of person. I'm afraid to face her and have her refuse me, and more afraid still of facing her and having the last living member of my family try to kill me." He ran his hand back through his hair. "And I'm excited. Excited about the possibility she'll be here and can help and will say yes and won't be the last living member of my family anymore." He looked at Nebula with a weak smile and heard his voice starting to crack. "I'm even excited to see her. To just be in a room once more with another person who has Odinschild appended to their name."</p><p>Nebula reached over and gave his shoulder an awkward, mechanical pat.</p><p>"She's my sister," Thor said. "Not a very good sister, to whom I have not been a very good brother. But it means something. Doesn't it?"</p><p>Before Nebula could answer, there was a hard thud against the window, jolting them both to attention.</p><p>Nebula stared. "I guess you're going to find out."</p><p>Thor stared, too. "Providence is really something. Come on."</p><p>They hurried to the bay doors and Thor hastily opened them. Nebula didn't wait to argue with him about who would go out to grab their prize, just started climbing along the side of the ship as fast as she could. Within moments, she was back, dragging his unconscious sister behind her all the way to the bridge before dropping her at his feet on the floor.</p><p>"Is she alive?" Thor asked.</p><p>"I don't know," Nebula said. She gave him a pointed look. "Maybe she's holding her breath."</p><p>Thor got down next to her, taking Hela's hand. It was freezing  cold, in places frosted over with little ice crystals. He winced and tried to squeeze some warmth into it. "Hela," he said. "Can you hear me?"</p><p>She didn't respond. She didn't look in any shape to. As ragged as Hela had looked when he first met her on Earth, her armor torn, her hair and war paint a mess, she looked at least twice as bad as that now. The tears that had been repaired by her returning to Asgard were back and there were several new ones, one sleeve nothing more than a tattered rag hanging from her elbow. Her hair was lank, limp, and tangled, with several large knots made worse by bits of ice or debris. She had lost one shoe, which at least gave him hope she was still alive- there was none of the purpling in her heel and ankle one would expect with a corpse whose blood had pooled in the back of their body. But she did have several other large bruises and some scabbed over cuts to boot.</p><p>"I'm sorry," Thor said, quiet. "I'm sorry to have done this to you, my sister." He moved some of her hair away from her face. "And I'm sorry to do this now." He raised his fist up and brought it slamming down on her chest.</p><p>Hela gasped awake, rolling onto her side as she started coughing like she would choke her guts out.</p><p>Thor breathed a sigh of relief. "Good," he said. "You're alive. You're all right. You're among friends."</p><p>Hela rolled to her knees, hunched and panting and clutching her chest. "You moron," she rasped, still struggling for air.</p><p>"It's all right," he said again. He didn't know what else to say.</p><p>It must have been wrong, though, because she whirled around, pivoting on one knee, to look at him with fervent hatred. "All right and among friends?!" she snarled. "You--!" She leaped on top of him and wrapped both hands around his throat, squeezing.</p><p>Pushing her off of him was so easy as to be worrisome. It had taken the largest lightning blast in the history of lightning to knock her off him last time they'd tussled. It shouldn't have taken just a shove. Thor looked at her with worry. "You need food and medical attention," he said. He looked her over again and added, "And probably a bath."</p><p>Hela drew a knife from her remaining boot and slashed at his chest. "I'll bathe in your blood, you stupid bilgesnipe!"</p><p>Thor easily dodged it, and that worried him, too. "All right, I understand that you're angry."</p><p>"Angry?!" She threw the knife at him. It went just over his shoulder and stuck into the wall.</p><p>Thor beamed at her. "Your throwing arm's still good, that has to bode well for your health."</p><p>She started to reach for his throat again, but Nebula was there this time to grab her by the back of her hair and one of her arms, and twist her to the floor.</p><p>"Careful, don't hurt her," Thor said.</p><p>Nebula must have heard that as "please hurt her," because she twisted Hela's arm enough that Hela screamed into the floor. Nebula bent to her ear. "He just did you a favor, you monstrous nightmare," she said. "You would still be floating in space if it wasn't for Thor."</p><p>Hela growled, but stopped struggling and lay still. "And to what," she asked, clenching her teeth, "do I owe that dubious pleasure?"</p><p>Thor sighed. "I wasn't planning to ask you this yet," he said. He got down on his belly on the floor so he could look in her eyes. "I need your help."</p><p>Hela looked repulsed. "Are you insane? Why would I ever help you with anything?"</p><p>Thor was reluctant to play this card too many times too fast, but he didn't have another one. "I did just save your life a moment ago." He paused. "It would have taken you ages to die out there, I've no illusions about that, but you would have died eventually." He thought about what little he knew about the Asgard of Hela's day and added, "And it would have been <i>in your sleep."</i></p><p>Hela looked even more disgusted, but at least this time it didn't seem to be at him. "Let me up."</p><p>Nebula looked to Thor. He sat up and gave a shrugging nod. She let go of Hela.</p><p>Hela pushed herself back onto her knees, eyeing Thor with seething resentment. "So my baby brother needs me," she said, with twice the bitterness and none of the smugness Loki would have used to express the same sentiment. "For what? Teaching you to lace your boots, perhaps?"</p><p>Thor chose to ignore that. "You're a goddess of death," he said. "It's your art, your power."</p><p>She rolled her eyes. "Yes, obviously, and you want me to use it for what? To kill someone for you?"</p><p>"Of course not," he said. "But you do have access, don't you, to the realms beyond, and to ferry souls back and forth if you choose?"</p><p>Whatever Hela was expecting, it wasn't that. Some of her derision fell away in favor of confusion. "You have someone you want <i>saved.</i>"</p><p>"Yes," Thor said.</p><p>"And you thought I would do it?" </p><p>"Well, first, I was planning to find out if you could," he said. Thor swallowed. "It's Loki, Hela."</p><p>This cleared up nothing for her. "Who?"</p><p>Thor tried not to be annoyed with her. She couldn't help it that she and Loki had never been properly introduced. "Our brother," he said.</p><p>There was the briefest flicker of something in her eyes, gone before he could identify it. "<i>Your</i> brother," she corrected. "You at least fought me and have something other than a bit of blood to recommend you. What's this Loki to me?"</p><p>Thor clenched his teeth for a moment, then let it go. "Regardless of whether or not he means anything to you," he said, "he means something to me and I need your help to get him back from the dead. The Guardian of the Soul Stone on Vormir said a god of death might be able to do it. You're the only god of death I know, so I'm asking: <i>can you do it?"</i></p><p>"My sister as well," Nebula said.</p><p>Thor looked away, guilty. "Right, yes, and Nebula's sister Gamora as well."</p><p>"Oh, <i>two</i> dead people who mean nothing to me," Hela said. "That changes everything, then."</p><p>"Would you answer the question?" Thor said, unable to keep from raising his voice a little. "Will you help us get them back or not?"</p><p>Hela gave him a poisonous look that faded away in favor of one like she was being forcefed foul-tasting medicine. "I can't."</p><p>Thor felt his jaw sliding open against his will. "What do you mean, you can't?"</p><p>She looked as if explaining it were an even more bitter pill to swallow. "I mean that as much as I would truly <i>adore</i> to help my stupid little brother and his very angry robot to tear open the afterlives to get their dead people back, my life and strength were tied to Asgard. With its destruction, I have maybe a tenth of the capabilities I had the last time we saw each other. I can't just go ripping portals into the lands of the dead. It would tear me apart."</p><p>The silence in the wake of that pronouncement seemed to go on forever. Thor was beyond not knowing what to say. His mind was a blank and empty chamber of echoes, where the only sound was the shattering of his last hope.</p><p>"I see," he said.</p><p>"Cheer up, little brother," Hela said. "Maybe I'll kill you and you'll get to join him."</p><p>Something inside Thor snapped.</p><p>He started to laugh. "What a good and clever point that is," he said. He reached for the ship's steering console and fired the engines, turning up the acceleration as high as it would go before nudging them forward into the debris.</p><p>Hela immediately looked alarmed. "What are you doing?"</p><p>Nebula looked wary. "Thor."</p><p>The first crash of debris against their ship rocked it off the course he'd set and sent them spinning into more. The second crash bounced them back again.</p><p>"Maybe the problem isn't that only Thanos' victims can go to where Thanos sent them," Thor said. "Maybe it's that no one else has tried hard enough."</p><p>"Stop it," Nebula said.</p><p>"Maybe no one else has chased false lead after false lead," Thor said, steering them back towards the debris for another go, "and stolen an infinity stone and talked to dead men and hung nine days in a tree for nothing but bad news and then given it a good Asgardian <i>try!"</i></p><p>The ship started making warning beeps.</p><p>"You're going to get us killed!" Hela said.</p><p>Thor laughed. "Wasn't that just what you were telling me to do?"</p><p>"Shields have lost half their integrity," Nebula said, looking at a console. "Another impact could finish us."</p><p>"Then we shall have to look for a big enough piece to make sure," Thor said. "What about that one? That one looks good." It looked the size of Surtur's fist when he had first risen up out of Asgard. Maybe it was. "What do you think, sister? Is it Surtur's fist? Shall we find out how hard it really hits?" He accelerated towards it.</p><p>"You're mad," Hela said, staring.</p><p>"You may be a bit slow on the uptake, sister," Thor said. "That probably ought to have occurred you when I fished you out of space to bring back the dead."</p><p>The giant rock was getting closer.</p><p>"Thor," Hela said. It was the first time he could remember her ever saying his name.</p><p>"Maybe this won't work," Thor said. "Maybe we'll just go back to Hel together. Hopefully you'll be able to show me all the good spots."</p><p>Suddenly, Nebula snapped, "Is there anything that can be done to make you strong enough to save them?"</p><p>There was a tense second.</p><p>"Yes," Hela said. "Yes, angry robot, there is."</p><p>Thor killed the engines and steered the ship wildly to one side. Its momentum carried it in the opposite direction of the debris field.</p><p>Hela stared at him for a moment, as though waiting to see if his insanity had passed. Thor didn't blame her; he wasn't sure it had, either.</p><p>"Not that this is possible," Hela said, "but if we had the Eternal Flame, its powers are beyond even those of an infinity stone. It can restore nearly anything. It can give sparks of anima to bodies with no souls. It can grow back bodies for souls that have none. It could certainly reinvigorate me."</p><p>"All right," Thor said. "So we need the Eternal Flame. Why didn't you just start with that?"</p><p>She looked at him as though she had never encountered anyone so stupid before. "You destroyed it," she said. "Along with everything else on Asgard."</p><p>"So we'll make another one," Thor said.</p><p>"Make another one?" Hela repeated, laughing sickly. "The Eternal Flame was forged in the flames of the volcano Surt, using kindling from the willingly given limb of a colossus flora, and suspended in the metal of a cup forged in the heart of a dying star. Do you think that some of those things might be <i>a bit</i> hard to come by?"</p><p>"I... might have something," he said. "Though I suppose we do have to go to Muspelheim, and they don't much like me there."</p><p>"Can't imagine why," Hela said.</p><p>"So this is all it takes?" Thor asked. "We go to Muspelheim, make you a new Eternal Flame, then..." He wasn't sure what happened then.</p><p>"I'll bathe in its fires to restore to me to health," she said.</p><p>"Right, that," Thor said. "You know, I had to take a magic bath as part of a quest once. I wonder what the chances are that would happen to people in the same family twice."</p><p>Nebula gave him a grumpy look. "I wonder what the odds are that people in the same family would end up chasing ridiculous magical objects twice."</p><p>"Is it really twice if I'm recycling the one from last time?" he asked. Then he waved it away. "Never mind. Let's show Hela to her rooms."</p><p>The ship had only one set of quarters and they were furnished for the type of pilot who never really slept, just got drunk and passed out somewhere, which was to say with nothing but random piles of Valkyrie's clothes. Hela looked disgusted, but sat down without complaining.</p><p>Mostly without complaining. "It smells like a distillery in here," she said.</p><p>"Yes, well. Sit tight," Thor said. "I'll let you know when we get there." He turned away from her, went back to the bridge and to the steering console to plot a course for Muspelheim.</p><p>Nebula sat down next to him. "If you ever try to intimidate her like that again without warning me, I'll tear out your other eye."</p><p>"Understood," he said. Then he looked at her with more sincerity. "I'm sorry."</p><p>She nodded, then looked at him with a curiosity that bordered on worry. "You're not all right," she said, "are you?"</p><p>"No," Thor said. "But since when have we let that stop us?"</p><p>Nebula looked out the window. "I guess that's true."</p><p>They spent the rest of the journey to Muspelheim in companionable silence.</p><p>---</p><p>Muspelheim looked no more welcoming now than it had the last time Thor had visited it. It still looked like a ball of fire from space, though he knew that once you got closer, it was just that there were lots of fires and lava pits and volcanoes everywhere, not really that the whole planet was nothing but flame.</p><p>He wondered how they would ever figure out which volcano was the right volcano for them to harvest from. Did it have to be the exact same volcano the previous Eternal Flame had sprung from? Would it matter if they went to the wrong volcano?</p><p>Hela gave Thor a suspicious look. "You look like you're thinking."</p><p>Thor looked back at her. "Yes," he said. "So?"</p><p>"You don't seem to be a thinking type," Hela said. "Perhaps you ought to leave such things to me and the angry robot."</p><p>"I'm not a robot," Nebula said.</p><p>"Or just to me," Hela said. "It's so hard, after all."</p><p>Thor rolled his eyes. "Do remember that we are here to complete a ritual to strengthen you, and that if you prove to be unhelpful for our purposes, we can always dump you into space and leave you to float again until you die."</p><p>"Sensitive," she said. But she dropped it, at least.</p><p>"How will we know the right volcano?" Thor asked. Hela knew the history, after all; perhaps she remembered something useful of the geography.</p><p>"It's the largest volcano in the universe," she said. "I think that might be hard to miss, don't you?"</p><p>"If your goal is to make me sorry I asked you any questions at all, you won't succeed," Thor said. He gave her a bright smile to show just how not-annoyed he was by her. "Loki was better at it." He patted her shoulder.</p><p>Hela gave a "why is this happening to me" sort of sigh, then gestured to the planet, which they were now close enough to to see the individual spots and veins of red and orange that gave it its burning appearance. "It's that one."</p><p>From here, it looked like a scab with a glowing leak at the center. It was definitely the biggest landmark anywhere in sight.</p><p>Thor still couldn't stop himself from looking innocently at his sister and asking, "Are you sure? What if there's a bigger one on the other side?"</p><p>"There's not," she said.</p><p>"Maybe we should make a complete orbit," he teased.</p><p>"Are you not in a hurry?" she asked, giving him a withering sort of look.</p><p>"Why would I be?" Thor asked. "Loki and Gamora are dead. As depressing as that is, it does mean they're not in any time-sensitive sort of danger."</p><p>Hela must not have had any response to that. All she said was, "I hate you."</p><p>"Yes, so I gathered," Thor said. "All right. We'll land there." He pointed at one spot that seemed to be less on fire than the others. "Then we can make our way through this forest of dead trees, I don't think we'll run into any giants in there. Then we just climb the volcano and dip my axe handle in the lava. Simple."</p><p>"Are you joking?" Hela asked, raising her eyebrows.</p><p>"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" he asked, ignoring the very likely probability that he did. Being on a quest to rescue Loki with two allies on his side was strangely reinvigorating. So was getting on Hela's nerves. And, if he were honest with himself, so was having Hela get on his. After all, what was a sister but a brother who happened to stand a little shorter?</p><p>"We are in a spaceship," she said. "Why land at all when we can hover over the volcano, lower ourselves down to the top, get what we need, and leave without risking seeing any giants at all?"</p><p>"Where's your sense of adventure?" Thor asked, grinning at her.</p><p>"Thor," Nebula said, giving him a warning look.</p><p>"I imagine it's somewhere with my ability to defend myself in a fight," Hela said, unimpressed with Thor's charms. "You might have noticed I'm not at full operating capacity in the event of an attack."</p><p>"Do you think I wouldn't protect you?" he asked.</p><p>Hela looked surprised for the briefest of seconds before she decided to crush it under sarcasm. "The brother who betrayed my kingdom to Surtur and caused the apocalypse of our world merely to keep me from ruling it, going out of his way to protect me? Do I want to count on that in a fight with a Fire Giant? Hmm. A difficult decision, this."</p><p>"I don't get what I want unless you live," Thor reminded her. "That's the difference between you and me, Hela. I would never be willing to throw Loki's life away just to spite you."</p><p>"That is <i>a</i> difference between us," she said, "not least because I still can't be bothered to remember who Loki is. But I wouldn't call it <i>the</i> difference."</p><p>"And what is, would you say?" Thor asked.</p><p>"My plan's still better than yours," she said.</p><p>Thor looked down at the planet and the possible Fire Giants lurking all over it. "Yes. It is. All right. We'll do that."</p><p>Now there was something that made Hela look smug. Thor tried not to smile.</p><p>Nebula said nothing, but piloted the ship so they were over the volcano.</p><p>Thor opened the doors to the ship's undercarriage. He fiddled with the controls until he got the shield underneath to disappear. Immediately he was hit in the face by a blast of hot, smelly air that made him cough.</p><p>Hela was watching. "Volcanoes give off noxious fumes," she said. "You might consider wearing a mask of some sort."</p><p>"I'll be fine," Thor said. "I can survive in the vacuum of space, how difficult could the fumes of a volcano be?" Even if his eyes were already watering. Well, <i>eye,</i> singular. He thought the better of it and took his prosthetic eye out. "Keep a hold on this, would you?" He tossed it in Hela's direction.</p><p>She caught it without any squeamishness. "Oh, look, the second time you've given me an eye."</p><p>"I don't want it to melt if the air's hot enough," Thor said.</p><p>"If the air's hot enough to melt your eye," Hela said, looking at him once more like he was too stupid to be borne, "it's hot enough to melt the rest of you, too."</p><p>"If you don't want to hold it for me," Thor said, raising a mocking eyebrow, "give it back."</p><p>Hela gave him a grudging look before she stuffed it in her sleeve.</p><p>"Thank you," he said. He attached himself to a safety harness. He wasn't sure it would extend far enough, but they didn't have anything else, so it was going to have to do. </p><p>Once he was sure he was secure, he pulled Stormbreaker from its harness on his back.</p><p>Hela gave it a look that struck him as vaguely covetous. "Do you always carry that?"</p><p>"Since you killed Mjolnir," Thor said.</p><p>Hela gave him a sour look. "Mjolnir was mine," she said. "Made for me. He shouldn't have given it to you."</p><p>"Maybe," Thor said. "Maybe not. But we aren't going to argue over this one, are we?" </p><p>Hela looked like she wanted to challenge him on that point, but then she seemed to remember that she couldn't fight him until after he had finished this quest for her. She affected an air of indifference. "It isn't my color."</p><p>Thor laughed. "Wish me luck." He dropped backwards out of the ship, falling into the mouth of the volcano.</p><p>As he jerked to a stop, far closer to the horrible heat than any person should ever get, he wondered if there would have been anything Loki could have done if he were here. Could a Frost Giant cool a volcano? </p><p><i>I wouldn't test that just because you can't handle a little heat,</i> he thought Loki would say. </p><p><i>Of course,</i> Thor thought. <i>Nothing to do with your refusal to use any of your abilities from that side of the family at all.</i> </p><p>Hela had not been wrong about how vile the smell would be down here. Thor's nose and lungs alike were burning. Even his throat. He pulled his shirt up over his face. It didn't help much. </p><p>Carefully, oh so carefully, he reached to dip the ax handle side down into the lava. When the two touched, it sparked immediately into flame. This was the tricky part.</p><p>Thor broke off that piece of handle just above the flame and flipped the whole mess around to try and catch the new flame with the blade without dropping anything.</p><p>There was a confused moment of dropping, juggling, and very nearly losing the whole damn thing- but there it was. A magical flame, floating just an inch off the edge of his ax blade.</p><p>"Have you got it?" Hela yelled.</p><p>"Yes!" </p><p>"Don't drop it!" </p><p>Thor resisted the urge to roll his eye. It always felt weird to move one when the other wasn't in. "Pull me up!"</p><p>There was a tug on the line and slowly she began to lift him back into the ship.</p><p>Thor wanted to smile at the new Eternal Flame sitting on Stormbreaker's blade. That had almost been too easy. </p><p>He had hardly formed the thought before he heard the roar below him.</p><p>He let out a deep, beleaguered sigh. "Well," he said, "I probably ought to have expected that." He craned his neck to look.</p><p>The last time Thor had fought on Muspelheim, Surtur had had a dragon to chase him around with. That dragon must have been a baby, because this one was huge. Fire floated along its horns the same as it hovered by Stormbreaker's blade and each of the giant teeth sticking out of its mouth dripped with something green and steaming that dissolved whatever bits of rock it landed on.</p><p>Thor stared at it. "You have got to be joking."</p><p>The enormous wings spread out behind its back, practically blocking out Muspelheim's red sun, and it rose into the air in pursuit.</p><p>"Pull me up!" Thor shouted. "Pull me up, pull me up!"</p><p>Hela didn't start lifting any faster. In fact, his harness seemed to come to a complete halt.</p><p>He looked up. He could see no one there. </p><p>He looked back down. The dragon was coming.</p><p>Thor gritted his teeth. "Damn it all to hell," he said. He shoved Stormbreaker back into its harness on his back, deciding to worry later about whether it was singeing his hair, and unclipped himself from the re-jiggered net. </p><p>His fall was broken by the snout of the dragon.</p><p>Thor clung to a nostril that was almost twice as big as he was, trying frantically to think of what to do next. He couldn't use Stormbreaker to attack the beast with, he needed to protect the Flame. The entire point of the plan had been avoiding a fight, so he had no other weapons.</p><p>Wishing with all of his heart for a better idea, Thor punched the dragon in the nose.</p><p>The beast screamed so loud, it felt like it would shatter his entire body.</p><p>Cringing, Thor shoved himself into the dragon's nostril, kicking at a spiny sinus wall. There was another shriek, a little softer this time, but more confused and annoyed. A claw came in Thor's direction and tried to drag him out. He crawled further in, trying not to think too hard about the bright orange slime that was getting all over him. </p><p>He began punching again at the sinus walls, hanging onto one as hard as he could when the dragon began shaking its head and clawing more at its nose. There was a smell of blood as the creature managed to cut itself trying to get at him. </p><p><i>Great,</i> he thought. <i>Now I just have to wait for this animal to die from a nosebleed.</i> </p><p>He was going to kill Hela when he got out of this.</p><p>The claw kept coming, scratching every which way to get him out. More of the orange slime was forming, making it harder for Thor to grip, everything was so slippery. It didn't help that the dragon's nasal walls were starting to twitch. Then he felt it: a rattling in the whole area, the passages starting to widen and the air inside starting to grow hotter.</p><p>"Oh shit," he said. He started trying to crawl forward as fast as he could.</p><p>Not fast enough. With some flickers of flame and even more of the dragon's vermilion snot, Thor was sent flying into the air with a sneeze.</p><p><i>This is it,</i> he thought. <i>This is how I'm going to die. My tomb will read Thor, son of Odin, sneezed into a volcano by a dragon.</i></p><p>Another body slammed into his, catching him just before he fell into the mouth of the volcano. He looked up to see his savior, expecting Nebula. It wasn't.</p><p>Hela was swinging on the harness he had unclipped himself from, making a wide arc past the dragon's face, around the lip of the volcano, and back to under the ship.</p><p>"Don't you dare drop that ax," she snapped at him.</p><p>Considering the circumstances, Thor thought it was probably best not to fight with her.</p><p>The dragon, rubbing at its face after the sneeze, shrieked when it saw them, leaning forward to try and bite them out of the air. Hela stretched out her hand, which took on the faintest tinge of blue, and she shot sheets of ice over its eyes.</p><p>"What." Thor stared.</p><p>Hela didn't answer, instead throwing her body into another swing to get them out of the way as Nebula stood at the bay, her hands holding the holographic triggers for Valkyrie's guns, and began blasting at the dragon.</p><p>They swung around behind the ship, then Hela leaped for it, grabbing onto the undercarriage below. She grunted over Thor clinging to her. "You weigh more than Sleipnir," she said. "Can you grab onto this ship, you useless lump, or must I do everything for you?"</p><p>Thor reached up to grab the undercarriage, too. They both began to climb back inside. Nebula was still shooting, seeming to take a grim sort of glee in it.</p><p>The dragon was too busy trying to pry ice out of its eyes to do much more than flinching and trying to twist out of the way of being shot. It seemed to perceive it as being pelted with rocks.</p><p>Thor ran straight for the piloting console. "Nebula, get back inside," he said.</p><p>"If I stop shooting it, it will chase us," she said. "Just go!"</p><p>"Hela!" Thor said. "Hold onto her!"</p><p>Hela was too busy stroking Stormbreaker's blade, eyeing the Eternal Flame with a hunger that bordered on lust. Thor slapped her hand away.</p><p>"Oh, if I must," Hela said. She went back to the bay and grabbed onto Nebula's waist.</p><p>Thor punched the button for the boosters. </p><p>The ship lurched up, Hela and Nebula both nearly tipping out of it. Outside the window, Thor could see that the dragon had finally managed to de-ice one of its eyes. It took one dizzy leap in their direction, screeching as it was shot in the face for the first time. </p><p>He nudged the boosters higher, zipping out of the atmosphere as fast as he could. He heard them close up the bay a moment later.</p><p>"Too easy," he muttered, leaning, exhausted, back into his seat.</p><p>---</p><p>Thor found the first quiet and empty area of space they could park the ship in. If they were going to head straight for the afterlife once they had restored Hela, then the ship needed to be somewhere safe to leave unattended, somewhere that it wouldn't be stolen or crashed into. </p><p>Hela was pulling a panel off the ship wall and banging it into something like a chalice to keep the Flame in.</p><p>"We could just leave it on the ax," he said.</p><p>"How do you see me bathing in fire floating on the blade of an ax?" she asked. "Were you going to wave it at me?"</p><p>Thor chose not to argue with her. "How did you freeze the dragon's eyes?"</p><p>Hela wrenched up one side of the panel. "How did it look like I did?"</p><p>"I saw what you did," Thor said. "How did you do it? Was it magic? Because I thought the point of this was that you can't use magic."</p><p>Hela looked at him. "You're serious?"</p><p>"Yes." Why would she think he wasn't?</p><p>Hela looked at him for a moment of brief disdain and disgust, which was overtaken by realization and then a low-key bitter hatred. "Of course," she said. "Odin never told you anything about before you were born."</p><p>"He did," Thor said, defensive for a moment. But then he thought of Loki's adoption and Hela's existence in the first place and it occurred to him that perhaps this wasn't an area where Odin deserved much defending. "But not as much as he should," he amended.</p><p>Hela huffed out a bitter laugh. "Well, little brother, the facts you weren't told are these. My mother was Jord, Odin's first wife. She was Laufey's wife first. Odin seduced her, married her, and had me. Then Laufey seduced her, remarried her, and took her back. They warred about it for an age, as men do."</p><p>"Laufey," Thor said, his jaw going slack. "You're a Frost Giant."</p><p>"Half," she said. "The less impressive half, considering how little I get from it, but being able to ice over the occasional threat has its uses."</p><p>"Asgard and Jotunheim were bitter enemies for centuries," Thor said.</p><p>Hela looked impatient. "Yes and I have just told you why. Need we continue your history lessons or may we restore me and go rescue your loved ones?"</p><p>Thor wanted to shout. She had just radically changed everything he knew about the history of both his people and his family- Loki was going to be <i>furious</i> when he found out that it had all been for a lover's quarrel- and she wanted him to just carry on as if everything were the same?</p><p>Nebula touched his elbow, giving him one of her impatient/sympathetic looks. <i>I do care, but I also don't have time for this.</i></p><p>He felt a twinge of guilt. "All right. Let's start, then." He laid Stormbreaker on the side of the twisted almost-chalice that Hela had made. The fire seemed to relax into the pit and grew quickly to fill the new allotment of space. Hela could not have looked more pleased with it if the Flame had been her own young child presenting her with a thoughtful handmade gift. It was disconcerting, actually, how much that smile reminded him of Frigga's.</p><p>"Is there anything Nebula and I must do?" Thor asked.</p><p>"Say the words for me," she said. "I trust you can handle that." She wore a look of deep skepticism that suggested she did not, in fact, trust that he could handle that.</p><p>"Of course," he said, pretending not to see it. He hesitated for a moment, then laid his hand on the back of her neck, squeezing, pressing with his thumb. "Whenever you're ready, sister."</p><p>Hela looked baffled, but didn't comment on his hand. She picked up one of his fingers in a manner like she was grabbing something disgusting by the smallest part of it that she could and dropped it away. She stepped back from him, turning her attention with glee to the Flame. She pulled her armor away to who knew where- it looked as though it were vanishing inside her, like it was made of scales she could flip over to reveal skin underneath. </p><p>Thor immediately looked up at the ceiling. <i>That was my sister naked,</i> he thought, trying to suppress a shudder.</p><p>He could hear Hela stretching, limbering up, and then she whipped by his peripheral vision, flipping into the chalice she had made to submerge herself into the Flame. </p><p>Thor gritted his teeth and looked so he could address the Flame, trying to ignore his sister sprawled in it on her back. "By the Eternal Flame," he said, "you are reborn."</p><p>The change was instantaneous. The Flame turned a brilliant green and spread over her body from head to toe so that she was visible only as a shape in the brightness. The fire seemed to grow higher, to reach for the ceiling, as though it were being fed.</p><p>A moment later and Hela stood up out of it, wearing her armor once again. All of its holes and tears were repaired, as were all of her former wounds. Even her hair and makeup were revitalized, and she looked as strong and healthy as she had the day he had fought on her Asgard.</p><p>She stretched out with a faint pleasureable moan. "That was <i>heavenly.</i>"</p><p>"Feeling better?" Thor asked.</p><p>"Much," she said. She gave him a dangerous smile. "Allow me to show you." She flung her hands out to the sides, magicking up a pair of swords.</p><p>Thor sighed. "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."</p><p>"Poor naive little brother," she said. She began to leap for him. She didn't finish. Thor pressed the button on the remote in his pocket and her whole body seized with electrical energy, freezing her in place so that she fell, face first and twitching, to the floor.</p><p>"Thank you, Valkyrie," Thor said, flipping the remote in his hand. Heh. "And thank you, Loki, I suppose."</p><p>Hela just managed to roll onto her back, her face rigid with electricity, her eyes alight with fury.</p><p>Thor knelt at her side and held the remote up to where she could see it. "What you have in your neck is an obedience disk. This allows me to control it."</p><p>She couldn't speak, her jaws locked together by electrical spasms through the muscles, but he was certain that if she could, she would be screaming all manner of obscenities. </p><p>"I won't use it on you after this if you stop trying to kill me," he said. "Do as we asked, help bring Loki and Gamora back alive, and we can fight to my death then if we must. But in the meantime, you don't try to murder me or any of my friends. Is that simple enough for you?" He dialed the setting on the remote down until it looked like she could move her mouth.</p><p>"How do you know I won't kill you <i>and</i> everyone you love the moment it's out?" she asked, her teeth still clenched. </p><p>"If you give me reason to think that, I just won't take it out," he said. He flipped the remote again. "I'll leave it in there forever and let Loki have the remote to shock you at random whenever he feels the need. Does that sound like a bargain to you?"</p><p>"You wouldn't," Hela said, somehow managing to look disdainful through the pain.</p><p>"Has this journey so far taught you that I will take any low effort half measures when it comes to getting my brother home and safe?" Thor asked. </p><p>Though she could scream the obscenities now, she didn't. She looked very much like Loki used to look when he lost a game as a child. </p><p>"Do we have an accord then, or not?" he asked.</p><p>Her expression became more like she was swallowing down something that tasted very foul. "Yes."</p><p>Thor pushed the button and let her get up. Hela relaxed into the floor like she didn't really feel like doing anything just now.</p><p>He tried to smile at her. "When you're ready, we'll head into the afterlife."</p><p>"Get away from me before I tear your other eye out," she said. She paused for a moment, then withdrew his prosthetic eye from her sleeve, holding it up for him.</p><p>"Thank you," Thor said. He put it back in and then left her alone.</p><p>Nebula was near the piloting console, watching Hela in a suspicious way that suggested she thought if she took her eyes off her for even a second, she would rise up and try to murder them all again. "I don't like trusting her."</p><p>"I'm not very excited about the prospect myself, but she's our only hope," Thor said.</p><p>Nebula gave him a suspicious look, too.</p><p>"What?" </p><p>"I don't believe you," she said, incredulous- and a little accusatory. "You're starting to like her."</p><p>Thor sputtered. "No," he said. "No, I- not at all." Nebula looked so suspicious that it was probably better to confess than try to deny. "Well, all right, a little. But we just bearded a dragon together! That's practically how Asgardians say 'I love you'! You can't just do that and not be friends <i>a little.</i>"</p><p>"You may be friends a little," Nebula said. "But your sister isn't."</p><p>"She's getting better," Thor said. "She could've fed me to that dragon and stolen Stormbreaker and the Eternal Flame, but she didn't."</p><p>"Only because she couldn't beat you then. She's already tried to kill you twice today. Both times after you did her a favor." She looked at him with worry, as though she thought he didn't understand. "You cannot trust her."</p><p>"I don't have to trust someone to like them," Thor said. He thought for a moment. "Though I suppose it- might- be better to remove temptation." He gestured towards the piecemeal chalice Hela had made. "We should probably dump that into space before she thinks about resurrecting another army with it."</p><p>Nebula looked relieved, as though that was the amount of perspective she needed to hear. "Agreed."</p><p>This exchange seemed to bring Hela to life. "No!" She threw herself on top of the chalice, protective. "Don't touch it!"</p><p>Thor tried to rally some sympathy. Destroying a magical artifact of such power, after they had gone to such effort to make it? Loki would've had kittens over the mere suggestion. "Hela," he started.</p><p>She gave him a look so deranged that he took a step back from her in startlement. "If you want your loved ones back, you'll leave it alone."</p><p>Nebula looked ready to throw both it and her out of the ship. "Is that a threat?"</p><p>"I can't save them without it," Hela said. "If we go their afterlife and find them, I only have the power to carry their souls back here, I can't give them life again. The Flame can. Without it, they're ghosts. They'll disappear and it will all have been for nothing."</p><p>Thor looked at Hela, at how she trembled and tried to cover the whole thing with her body. Somehow he didn't think she would get that worked up over Loki and Gamora. He crouched next to her. "Are you telling me the truth?" </p><p>Hela gave him a look of both annoyance and desperation. <i>"Yes,</i> she hissed.</p><p>Thor sat back on his heels. He didn't think she was lying... but he had the feeling that wasn't the whole truth, either. Still. He looked to Nebula. "I don't think we should risk it."</p><p>Nebula hesitated, looking from Hela to Thor and back. "All right," she said at last. "We won't."</p><p>Hela heaved a sigh of relief, though she did now look very embarrased. She stood up and straightened like a cat that had fallen off the bed, as though it had all been deliberate and she was still very dignified. "If you want your prize, we should probably get a move on."</p><p>Thor nodded. "We are ready to begin if you are."</p><p>"It won't be easy," Hela said. "I can't just tear open Thanopolae and take you there."</p><p>"It has a name?" Nebula asked, looking disgusted.</p><p>Hela ignored her. "It could be a very long trip, crossing world after world to find the right doors. If we can't find a better route, most of them will be hells, purgatories, and limbos- dark and dangerous places. Heavens are far fewer in number and usually twice as well-guarded."</p><p>"I see," Thor said, digesting that. Well, they couldn't be any worse than Muspelheim or Jotunheim, could they?</p><p>"How long will it take?" Nebula asked.</p><p>"It could be minutes," Hela said, "or it could be eons. Time doesn't pass there as it does here. I can't promise you that anyone you know or love out here will still be alive when we get back."</p><p>Thor took a breath. Valkyrie, Tony, Steve, Natasha, Bruce- they could all be dead when he returned? </p><p><i>If you're losing your nerve,</i> Loki would've said, <i>it's not as though you've come so far that you can't turn back.</i></p><p>Thor ignored him. "All right," he said. He gave Nebula a questioning look.</p><p>Nebula also looked perturbed by the possibility of all of the Guardians of the Galaxy being dead before she could bring Gamora home. But after a moment, she set her jaw. "Groot will still be alive," she said. "He'll want his mother back."</p><p>"I don't know why you keep saying these names as though they mean anything to me," Hela said. "But if you're ready...." She raised her hand up and stuck out one of her fingers with their long, dagger-sharp nails. She ran that nail through the air, making a soft tearing noise while before their eyes, reality itself split open into a lifeless void of black earth and eerie green light. A chill wind seemed to come out of the hole to that desolate place and froze against Thor's cheek.</p><p>"Well?" Hela asked.</p><p>Thor steeled himself and stepped inside.</p><p>It was even worse inside of it than it had been looking in. The sky and ground were both pitch black. The soil beneath his boots felt almost as hard and dry as rock. He could see neither sun nor moon nor any stars in the sky, but there was still some sort of green light permeating the atmosphere. It was almost as cold as Jotunheim, and twice as foreboding.</p><p>Thor fought against a shudder down his spine as Hela and Nebula stepped in beside him.</p><p>"What is this place?" he asked, looking to Hela. "It's cold."</p><p>Hela had a bitter, sardonic smile. "Home, sweet home," she said. She held up her hand and the green light became brighter, revealing some veins of purple through the black, cooling the ambient temperature by another two or three degrees.</p><p>Thor stared. "This is Hel? This is where Father banished you for the last thousand years?"</p><p>"Indeed," Hela said, sighing. "He seemed to think I'd enjoy it. Not too warm and in all my favorite colors." She looked at the ground like she wanted to spit on it. "It's amazing how what sounds perfect on paper can be the finest of tortures when it's so very overdone."</p><p>"Why are we here?" Nebula asked, looking around as though she were starting to feel sorry for Hela despite herself. "Why not some other place to start?"</p><p>"Hel is my realm," Hela said. "I can always get here from nearly anywhere else in the universe, provided my powers are in full working order. And from here, I can find the path to anywhere else I like." She sounded smug at this, and Thor thought that as much as she hated this place, she loved it, too. </p><p>Behind them the portal to the ship was starting to shrink with little flickers of green light around the torn seams. </p><p>"Last chance to turn back, little brother," Hela said. </p><p>Thor turned his back on it, resolute. "Lead the way, sister."</p><p>Hela didn't look surprised, but there was the slightest glint in her eye, Thor thought, of pride.</p><p>She turned away from them and began climbing up the crumbling hills around them. Thor and Nebula followed her in silence.</p><p>"Is there somewhere we're looking for in particular?" Thor asked. "You made it sound as though you could tear doors here as easily as you did on the ship."</p><p>"Then you weren't listening," Hela said. "I told you it was a matter of seeking the right doors."</p><p>"That starts before we enter a hell?" </p><p>"That started as soon as you let the door back to your ship close."</p><p>"Could we not go back if we wanted to?" Nebula asked.</p><p>"Whyever would you want to?" Hela asked. "Changed your mind about your sister? Or are you just that afraid of my realm?"</p><p>Nebula gritted her teeth and stopped talking.</p><p>It felt like an eternity of climbing up steep inclines and beside terrifying drop-offs before Hela seemed to find what she was looking for: a giant black wall with a gnarly texture.</p><p>Thor prodded it. Unlike the rest of this place, cold and dessicated, the wall felt alive. It seemed to shiver at his touch, as though his hands were too cold for its liking. He tried not to fall back down all those hills in startlement when he felt it react.</p><p>"What is this?" he asked.</p><p>Hela looked amused. "Don't recognize it?" She spread her arms out to her sides and opened her hands to the sky. The green light grew brighter and brighter, until Thor was able to make out that this "wall" extended on forever in each direction, including into the sky, where it thinned and widened and thinned again, grown all over with branches.</p><p>Branches.</p><p>Thor couldn't keep the awe from his voice. "Yggdrasil."</p><p>"You're not completely ignorant, then," Hela said. </p><p>"It's the world tree," Thor said to Nebula, who looked confused. "It's the path that connects all the realms, and all the worlds." He touched it again, this time with an almost reverent sort of joy. The tree responded in kind, its bark seeming to conform itself to his hand, like it wanted to be petted. </p><p>Hela reached out to touch it, too, her hand next to his.</p><p>Thor looked at her. "Why is it here?" </p><p>Hela rolled her eyes. "It's not <i>here,</i> little brother," she said. "It's everywhere. Here is just a place where you can see it. There's reality in death you won't find in life. Dead realms have their own blessings to give."</p><p>Thor stroked his hand down the tree again. "Thank you," he said, looking at Hela with more sincerity than he could ever remember looking at her before.</p><p>Hela looked uncomfortable. "Yes, well, don't thank me yet," she said, visibly shaking that discomfort off. "We're not just here to look at it, we're going to climb it."</p><p>"Climb it?" Thor laughed. "The world tree that is as infinite as the universe?"</p><p>"You may have noticed that an infinite universe still has places you can climb to," she said. "Now up we get." A branch grew from the trunk as if to help her, and Hela grabbed it and began to climb.</p><p>"This is madness," Thor said.</p><p><i>No,</i> Loki would've said. <i>This is magic.</i></p><p>Thor began to climb, offering Nebula a hand up so she could keep pace with them a little easier.</p><p>Hela didn't even seem to be paying attention to whether they were following her or not. She just kept going with a speed and determination like she was the one who would be reuniting with a dead loved one when they got to their destination. Thor wondered if maybe he ought to take a dip in the Eternal Flame when they got back; her endurance was ridiculous.</p><p>Eventually, Hela slid sideways onto a branch, shimmying along until she found a spot that was just thick enough for her to stand on.</p><p>"What is she doing?" Nebula asked.</p><p>"I don't know," Thor said. "Stay here, I'll find out." He followed her path until he was able to stand next to her. "Did you need to take a breath?"</p><p>Hela was looking down at something Thor couldn't quite see. "Asgardians can hold their breaths for ages," she said, unconcerned.</p><p>The branch gave the slightest wiggle of bowing under extra weight, and when Thor looked, Nebula had come up beside them. "What are you doing?" she asked, watching Hela with suspicion.</p><p>"Charting a course from somewhere I have a view," Hela said, still examining something below.</p><p>"We climbed the world tree so that you could have a better view of the ground?" Thor asked.</p><p>"Well," Hela said, "not just that." She reached around Thor, grabbed Nebula's shirtfront, and flung her off the edge of the branch, out into eternity.</p><p>Nebula looked surprised for an instant, then started to scream, falling until Thor couldn't see her anymore, and then a little more until he could no longer hear.</p><p>Thor reached to grab Hela. "What have you done?!" </p><p>She dodged him with ease, moving to a slimmer part of the branch. She gave him a deranged grin and beckoned him with both hands. "Come and get it, little brother, you know you've been dying for another chance."</p><p>Thor let out a senseless roar of hatred and launched himself for Hela.</p><p>They both tumbled off the branch and out into the void.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay, trying to do it in three big parts wasn't working for me, so I am dividing my very long second chapter into smaller chapters that are easier for me to edit and get betaed. Hopefully I can finish it before the Loki show!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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